7734
by Col. Sayaka Miki
Summary: This is the first night when the dead rise and feast on the living. Tales from the hell unleashed on Earth, from the cities of Mitakihara, Kazamino, Asunaro, and Hoozuki. This is the story of those who survived... and those who didn't.
1. Lights And Shadows

Madoka peeked around the corner. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

No reply.

She stepped out into the hallway, blinking several times as she tried to see through the dark. It wasn't working. It was the middle of the night, and she had been awoken by the sound of something crashing against the house's front door. Perhaps, she thought, it had just been her imagination. At worst, it was probably someone knocking on the door who had decided to leave after getting no response. She decided she should wake one of her parents before checking the door herself, just to be extra safe.

Opening her parents' bedroom door, she stepped over to the bed and shook her father awake. "Dad!" She whispered urgently at him. She couldn't wake her mother, who had to be well rested for work. "Dad, wake up. I heard a sound at the door."

After a few moments, she successfully waked her father. He got out of bed, only really half awake, and stumbled out to the hallway. She rushed ahead of him so he wouldn't stumble down the stairs. Leaning against the wall while he finished waking up, he blinked down at his daughter.

"Madoka... what time is it?"

Ducking her head back into her room, Madoka checked her clock. "Just after three."

He groaned. "Why did you get me up this early?"

Madoka dutifully pointed down the stairs. "I think I heard something at the door."

Tomohisa Kaname was a good father and a good man. Good enough to know why Madoka had woken him and not her mother. "Alright, I'll take a look."

They walked down the stairs to the main floor together, heading into the front room. As he was about to head for the door, Tomohisa noticed a light coming through the front window. Curious, he moved over to the window and drew the curtains apart. It took a moment for it to register, but when it did his eyes went wide. He turned to see Madoka standing right behind him.

"Where is the light comi-"

Grabbing his daughter, the man bolted back out of the room. A thunderous crash shook the entire house. A moment passed, and Tomohisa looked back into the room from the floor of the hall. Headlights beaming, a car now sat in the wrecked room. Standing, he checked to see that Madoka was alright. She was shaken, too stunned to speak, but otherwise fine.

Walking to the car, Tomohisa looked in through the shattered window. "Is anyone hurt in there?" The woman at the wheel of the car was dead, blood running off her face and dropping onto the wheel. Tomohisa backed away, talking to his daughter. "Madoka... go check on your brother." It was the only thing he could think of that made sense.

Even as Madoka hurried back up the stairs, the was a knock at the door. Tomohisa could see a shadow through the window, staggering about the front step. A low groan reached his ears. A sickly, dead-sounding groan. There was another groan from beside him. Looking over, he saw the driver of the car lifting her head. A dead look in her eyes, she opened her mouth and growled at him.

Some time in the night, the infection began. All over the world, the dead walked and hunted the living, feasting on flesh. This is the tale of the first night, when hell broke loose on Earth. These are the stories of those who survived.

...and those who didn't.


	2. Out On The Streets

Mami walked along the street alone. It was the dead of night, and all seemed quiet. She held her soul gem in her hands, looking for traces of a witch. Stopping for a moment, she let the absolute stillness of the night sink in. It seemed off, like there was disaster lurking nearby. Peering down at her soul gem again only added confusion. The sense of foreboding was unmistakable, but there was no trace of a witch nearby.

Turning to look behind her, Mami spotted someone shambling slowly down the street. She'd seen people walk like that many times before while under the spell of a witch's kiss. The man approached her, and she expected him to continue right past her. They always did, and they would then lead her to the witch...

As he got closer, he reached out for her. Stunned, she didn't move until his hands gripped her shoulders. His mouth open, he moved in to bite the young teen's neck.

Snapping back to her senses, a moment from what might have been death, Mami shoved the man off of her. The momentum made her fall onto her back, her soul gem falling from her hand. Two more people were behind her suddenly, reaching down and grabbing her arms. They lifted her off the ground as the first man grabbed her left leg. They all moved in to bite.

Still unaware of exactly why these people were acting this way, Mami struck out. She pulled her arms down, keeping them away from the snapping mouths, and kicked her right leg across the first man's face. He dropped her and fell to the ground. With the other two still holding her arms firmly in their hands, any normal schoolgirl would be in for it. Mami, however, just was not a normal schoolgirl.

Getting purchase with her feet, she quickly grabbed her assailants by their wrists and swung her arms over her head, sending them hurtling onto the street. None of the three wasted any time getting back onto their feet, and were all after her right away. The man she had kicked hadn't even gotten up and was crawling toward her. Even as strong as she was, Mami was not about to fight people. She couldn't do it. Not the people she had fought so long to protect.

She danced back to avoid the snapping jaws of the man. They just kept coming. If they were not deterred, she decided, by the next bout, she would have to resort to her powers and a show of force. If they fully understood what they were up against, maybe they would back off.

Mami froze. Her eyes locked on the clear yellow gem resting on the street, clear on the other side of her opponents. She needed her soul gem. She couldn't access her weapons without it. Hoping to disorient the attackers, she rushed the closest, only to find herself heading right into his waiting arms. Twisting away, she ducked under his hands and rammed her elbow into his stomach. He collapsed forward, but only from loss of balance, standing up again immediately. Running past him, she rolled under the other standing man and knocked him onto his face. Jumping up, she felt the first man, the crawling one, grab her ankle. Before she could kick him away, he pulled her foot out from under her. Landing hard, her hand was just an inch from her soul gem.

One kick to the man's face, and the gem was in her hand. A brilliant flash of light, and the simple school uniform was replaced by her battle uniform. The whole transformation took less than a second, and a moment later she had two rifles in her hands. To her shock, however, they didn't seem to notice in the slightest. The man kept crawling towards her, blood coming from where she had kicked his face several times, mouth gaping. Backing away more, so unsure of herself, Mami tripped over the curb. Dropping one gun in order to steady the other with both hands, she watched in horror as the man mindlessly crawled closer, even disregarding when she placed the end of the barrel in his mouth.

He lurched forward, the suddenness of it surprising her. The gun went off, and the back of his neck exploded out behind him. Her eyes wide, Mami was frozen. The other two closed in. Sounds from around her told her there were others approaching, drawn by the sound of gunfire. It was mindless. They were mindless.

...

Shaking herself back to the world, she looked up at the two nearest. The one on the ground had stopped moving. Now that it lay still, she could see the greyed look of the skin. It looked dead, like it had been that way for a while, starting to rot. These people, whoever they were... were already dead.

Mami picked up the other gun and aimed it at the closest one, blasting the top of its head off. She would fight this. More importantly, she would save anyone and everyone she could find. It had always been her mission.


	3. Battery

Kyoko wandered the streets of Kazamino, tracking after a group of people she had spotted walking strangely. It was the way people walked when under a witch's spell, but they were behaving a bit odd for even that. They had gone around the same circle several times, and there was no sign that they would stop. Deciding that she needed to take a step back, Kyoko took up a perch on a lamppost. The group didn't look in immediate danger, so she took a moment to think. If there was a witch involved, it wasn't showing itself.

Closing her eyes, her mind drifted off to other thoughts. She had enough troubles without having to deal with witches. Back at home, her father was furious. He wouldn't talk to anyone, and had driven everyone from the church in anger. The anger wasn't directed at the people, though. It was all directed at her. She wished she hadn't let him find out that she was a Magical Girl. She wished Kyubey would give her another wish.

An unusual sound broke her out of her reverie. Looking down, she found that her lamppost was surrounded by the group she had been following. Standing up, she grimaced at the sight below her. They were crawling over each other, moaning mindlessly as they reached up for her. There was no way they'd manage to get to her, but it was a disturbing sight. Their faces were bloodied, pieces were missing from their bodies, and their eyes were dead and white. She was glad for the lamppost for a number of reasons now, as it had shown her that they were not people anymore.

Kyoko gagged, trying not to think about it. She angled her spear down at the one that had climbed the farthest and thrust, the spearhead tearing its face off. The dead thing fell back into the throng. Swiping at the crowd, two more fell with their heads split open. Raising her spear for another attack, Kyoko froze. She gasped.

All along the street, more of the mindless walking dead shambled aimlessly. Except, of course, their aim for her. They were all headed in her direction. She had no way of knowing how widespread this was. She didn't know anything about how to deal with this. If only her father had let her watch that zombie anime! Then again, it was listed under harem...

Taking another swing at the growing crowd of what she wasn't ready to call zombies, she jumped over their heads to the sidewalk and ran. She had to make it home, in case these really were zombies. Her family would be in danger. Several thoughts ran through her head as she ran through the streets. How widespread was this? Did it cover the city? Was it happening in other cities too? Was it the whole world? Would they stay out of the church?

Minutes passed, dodging groups of more of the dead people. She ran straight up to the front door of her home, bursting through with her battle clothes still on and weapon still in hand. She stopped short when she found herself faced with her sister. It was the middle of the night. She shouldn't have been awake. For a second, Kyoko feared she was facing just another walking dead.

"Kyoko? What are you doing? What are you wearing?"

Kyoko stood wide-eyed. Momo was alive and fine from the looks of it. But her secret was out. "Momo..."

The two girls turned to see their sleepy mother walk out from the hall. "What are you two doing up this late?" She blinked a few times, seeing Kyoko's clothes. "What is this, Kyoko? Is that a... where did you get that weapon?" She looked around Kyoko, at something behind her. "And who is that man?"

Kyoko spun, seeing one of the shamblers only a few feet from the door. Acting on instinct now, her mind thinking of protecting her family first, she swiftly buried her spear in the dead man's chest. To her shock, and from the sounds behind her, her mother and sister's shock as well, the man blindly pushed ahead. He grabbed the spear shaft and pulled himself forward, reaching for her and clawing at her arm. In pain and surprise, she pulled back. The spear cut through his body and head, splitting him in two. Kyoko quickly shoved the corpse out of the house and closed the door. Her back to the door, she slid down to the floor, covered in the spray of blood from the kill.

The next sound she heard was her mother hitting the floor from fainting.


	4. Come With Me If You Want To Live

Hitomi was jolted awake by the sound of something hitting her the floor. The sound was already in her room, so she knew right away that she had slept through something. The sounds that met her frightened her too much to move. She shrunk down into her bed, hoping whatever was there would go away. It had to be some sort of animal, but how had it gotten in her room? She whimpered, trying not to think of what it was. She just couldn't stand if it was something scary like a pig or a cow.

The noise stopped suddenly. Hitomi peered into the dark, not daring to move or even breathe. Her eyes adjusted slowly, and soon she saw something standing there. It was a person. Someone was in her room. They moved again, drawing nearer to her bed. Their hands reached out for her, to grab her from her bed. Her thoughts of an animal intruder were gone, replaced with the fear '_Am I about to be raped!?_' Somehow, that wasn't as bad as it being a farm animal, of which she was terrified. She could fight back if it was just Human.

Moving faster than she thought she could, she reached up and grabbed her pillow, swinging it over her head at the intruder. It hit the intruder in their face at full force and knocked them to the ground. Flinging her blanket aside, she jumped over her vanquished foe and bolted for the door. Before running out the door, she turned on the light and turned to see who had attempted such a heinous act against her.

"Really, dear? That was unnecessary." Her mother stood up and tossed the pillow back onto the bed. She yawned tiredly, which Hitomi recognized as the sound she had heard earlier. "Come on, get dressed. We need to go. Be quick about it."

Her mother headed back downstairs, leaving her to do as she was told. Hitomi wasn't sure what she was supposed to get dressed for, so she instinctively put on her school uniform. Grabbing her pillow in case this involved a lengthy car ride. She was still tired, and was somewhat used to sleeping on the way to some important thing her parents dragged her to. Often, she had even found a nice place to go to sleep at company parties, always waking up only a minute or two before the party ended.

Heading down to the foyer, she saw her mother standing alone. "Where's Dad?"

Her mother sighed. "He'll meet up with us when we get there."

"Where are we going?"

The woman's face was unreadable. "The military base. We'll be safe there."

Without knowing what they would need to be safe from, Hitomi had some doubts about that being the safest place to be. She couldn't argue with her mother, though. Best to just do as she was told. They headed to the garage, and Hitomi watched in awe as her mother opened the back area. It had always remained sealed, and she had never seen what it held. She knew there was a vehicle of some sort back there, but had always assumed it was some collectors item sports car. When the steel door slid up, it revealed a very different form.

Hitomi's mother stepped over to a man who had been standing next to the large vehicle. "Kaito, is everything ready?"

The butler gave a slight bow. "As you ordered, Ma'am. Enough fuel to make the full distance. Whenever you're ready."

Hitomi just stared at what had been hidden in her family's garage for as long as she could remember. "Mom?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Why do we have a tank?"

Rolling her eyes, the woman grumbled. "It's an Armored Personnel Carrier, Hitomi. They wouldn't let us have a tank." She headed towards the back, continuing to explain why they had a tank that wasn't a tank. "You're father's line of work required us to have some sort of armored transport in case things got bad."

Things were bad? Hitomi looked around the garage. It was quiet. "But... Dad's an doctor."

Putting her hand on her hip and tapping her foot on the floor impatiently, Hitomi's mother explained how that made sense. "Well, yes, he is, but he's a specific type of doctor. He's more of a medical sciences researcher. His team works at the base, and as you know is funded by my company. They have been working on a way to reanimate dead tissue. Bring people back to life. Unfortunately, and I might as well be straightforward about this, they succeeded only halfway. The serum they developed only brought the body back to life. It kind of... escalated from there."

Hitomi shook her head. "What... I don't know what you're saying. Mom? What's going on?"

Beckoning her child over to her, she lowered her voice. "Hitomi, listen closely. The dead have risen and are eating the living. Their bites, or even scratches, are fatal. They are also infectious, and will turn anyone they kill into another of them. Do you know what this means?"

Hitomi had gone pale. She shook her head.

"What it means is c_ome with me if you want to live_."


	5. Purple Heart

Homura Akemi sat in her bed. She couldn't sleep tonight. Every few seconds, a pain in her chest stole her breath. It was impossible to sleep this way, so she just sat in her bed and watched out her window, taking in the sight of Mitakihara. This city was her new home. The doctors had promised her that she would be well enough to go to school some time during the coming school year. It would be strange, transferring in so late, but it couldn't be avoided.

Looking out at the bright city under the dark sky was, all told, something that never really got old. It had been beautiful the first day, and it had remained beautiful. Leaning back, Homura thought about what it would be like to hear the city at night. She couldn't hear it now, as her window was closed because the night air would not be good for her. After another hit of pains, Homura sat back and closed her eyes. She had to sleep some time, and she was beginning to wonder when her body would get too tired to stay awake in spite of it all.

The door opened and the light came on. Homura opened her eyes to see the nurse who normally cared for her. The young woman saw that she was awake and desperately tried to hide the panic on her face. "Oh, you're awake. Okay, can you walk?"

Taking a few purposeful deep breaths, Homura nodded.

"Good. I'm going to bring you to another room. Come on."

Climbing out of bed and grabbing her glasses, Homura stumbled to the door and let the nurse hold her up and guide her to another room. It wasn't far, really, so she wondered what the point was. As the door was opened and she was ushered inside, she spotted several people down the hall being rushed into her room. There was blood on them. She didn't get to look for long, and was soon seated in a chair next to a small girl who clutched the intravenous feed attached to her arm.

Homura scanned the room, seeing a number of other patients huddled together. There was a boy sitting in a wheelchair on the other side of the small girl, and more beyond him. She noticed quickly that they were all patients who were either recovering from injury or had some physical ailment. One thing was for sure, none of them were contagious. She wondered, though, what would cause this many to be put together in one room. The nurse was gone, so there was no one she could ask.

The room filled up quickly, and then the door was closed. A few minutes passed by, and boredom spurred Homura on to try and say something to the girl beside her. She was beaten to it by the boy in the wheelchair.

"What do you think is going on?"

Realizing that he was actually talking to her, Homura struggled to come up with an answer. "When I was brought here, I saw them taking people into the room I was staying in. I think that means they just have a lot of new injuries coming in."

The boy glanced around the room. "There has to be twenty people in here. They can't possibly be that full up, can they?"

The small girl coughed. "I'm thirsty..."

Homura's mind snapped into focus at the sound of a shrill scream from the hall. Everyone in the room quieted, listening to hear what was happening. More screams followed, and Homura felt the girl moving closer to her for comfort. Looking up, every pair of eyes in the room watched the door. They heard the voices screaming and shouting on the other side.

"Hold him down!"

"Get something in here to sedate him!"

"Someone help!"

"Keep him do- AARGH!"

"Doctor Takashi!"

"No! No no no no! Get those patients back in that room!"

"I need help here!"

"This man is flatlining!"

"Doctor, I need you over here!"

And everything after that was drowned out by the screams. _Turned into screams._


	6. Shadows

Sayaka sat, staring dumbly at the television. It had suddenly gone blank for no reason at all. Sitting with her on the couch, her parents were equally dumbfounded. The television wasn't the only thing. The lights had gone out, along with everything else. It was total darkness. There was no reaction from any of them except for silent confusion for a minute or two, which seemed like hours to Sayaka.

Finally, the blue-haired girl groaned, splitting the silence in the apartment. "Worst timing ever! I don't even get to find out who won!"

Reaching over to pat her on the shoulder, but missing and ending up patting her on the head, Sayaka's mother tried to comfort her. "We can finish it tomorrow."

Sayaka wasn't so sure. "Tomorrow is a school night, and what's even the point of watching a late night horror movie if it's going to get interrupted?"

"Well, too late to do anything about it, so you might as well head off to bed." Sayaka's father hauled her off the couch and directed her toward her room. "Off you go."

Sayaka promptly tripped over something, not that she could identify what, and fell on her face. Getting up was painful, and her parents didn't seem to mind that she'd fallen at all. Going the rest of the way to her door with a lot more care, she eventually made her way into her room and... sat down in her bed with her laptop. The internet would be down, but she'd still be able to do something. Most girls would put earphones in and start listening to some new pop hits. Sayaka put noise-cancelling headphones on and started listening to classical music.

She never heard the frantic knocking on the apartment door from the hallway. She didn't notice when it suddenly stopped either. She didn't notice when her father answered the door a moment later. She didn't notice when he was pulled into the hall. She didn't hear her mother screaming as the apartment was intruded. She didn't hear when the screaming stopped. The cannons in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture saw to that.

Between tracks, Sayaka would always pause the playlist to decide what song to listen to next. She didn't feel like any one piece in particular, so she selected one that had been suggested to her by someone online. It was the last time she listened to the 1812 Overture, someone suggested another piece that reportedly had cannons firing. She figured she had nothing to lose, so she downloaded it. It only took a moment, but she stopped the song and sat staring at the mp3 file once she realized what was different.

Sayaka sighed, leaning back. "I've never even heard of AC DC before, so they can't be that good."

Her thoughts were disrupted by the sudden sound of someone banging against her door. Taking off her headphones, she slid out of bed and moved to the door. She was about to open it when she realized that, whoever it was, they weren't letting up. Whichever of her parents it was, this wasn't cool.

"Hey! Bug off! Go get your own room!" The banging stopped, and she briefly wondered if, somehow, it had actually been a different kind of banging. Her response worked either way.

Then another noise took the place of the pounding sound against the door. This one was a low, primal growl. Fingernails, or maybe claws, raked across the other side of the door. Her imagination went wild trying to figure out what might be on the other side of the door. She sure wasn't about to check for herself, so she let her imagination do the deducing.

Backing away from the door, she tried to talk to whoever, or whatever, was on the other side. "Dad, is that you?" More growling was the only response. "...Satan?" Again, more growling. "If you don't tell me who you are, I'm going to have to assume you're Satan and then act accordingly." Again, no response but growling. She took a deep breath. "Okay, so Satan is in my apartment. What do you do, Sayaka? Satan... wants in my room."

"Hello. Can you let me in?"

Turning to the door in shock and horror, Sayaka couldn't believe her ears. "You... you talked!" It certainly wasn't her father's voice. "So, uh... are you Satan?"

"Some people have referred to me by that name. I never understood it. Everything I do is for the greater good."

Sayaka swallowed hard. "So... what do you want from me."

"If you'll open your window and let me in, I'll gladly explain it to you."

Turning suddenly, Sayaka gaped when she saw a small white creature sitting just outside her window. She bolted over and opened the window, letting what turned out to be a fluffy little critter prance into her room. She watched the creature, utterly bemused. "You, uh... aren't the same thing as the thing outside my door, are you?"

It jumped onto her bed, settling down on top of the warm laptop. Sayaka grimaced. That's why she hadn't gotten a cat. It's very cat-like smile was getting to her too. It took it's own sweet time, but eventually answer her question. "Not really, though you could say it's part of why I'm here."

"Okay." That sounded like it could be good. "So what are you and who do you want? I mean, uh, who are you and what do you want?"

To her luck, it readily answered all four questions. "I am Kyubey. You would refer to me as an alien. My job is to make contracts with girls, incidentally around your age, so they can become Magical Girls and fight evil. Normally, you'd be fighting witches, but I think you may have more pressing matters at hand for now. So what I want is to make contracts. Who I want is you."

"And what's outside my door?"

Kyubey glanced at the door. "I... can't particularly say for sure. What I do know is that, recently, something has changed in the format of the Human body. They should only be able to hold Human souls once, and then are expended when the soul leaves the body. The reformatting is a sort of virus, and when spread to another body it quickly ejects the presiding soul and makes the body open for takeover by another soul. The souls taking over are polluted and corrupted, and are driven to spread the virus. But the thing outside your door is something different. When the soul leaves the body, most go to a sort of... I guess you could say it's an afterlife. This place, though, causes the pollution and corruption of the soul. When they come back, they are pure evil. The thing on the other side of that door is also from that place, but it is not a Human soul. It has resided in that evil place far longer than Humans have been around."

"..." Sayaka was silent, mulling over everything Kyubey had said. "So... it is Satan?"

Kyubey shook his head. "No. It's the same as all the other ones, Human bodies returned to life and possessed by evil ruined souls. It just isn't a Human, and never has been."


	7. Fear Of The Dark

Oriko pulled her blanket closer around her. There was screaming coming from outside. Something horrible was happening, and she didn't want to know what. People were being hurt, maybe dying. She didn't want to be one of them. Whatever it was, she didn't want it to find her. She was alone in the world now, and it had begun to close in on her in the most horrifying way imaginable. Shuddering in despair and fear, she began to cry. She needed someone to save her, but there was no one left.

After several minutes, what felt like hours, the screams stopped. What was left was a suffocating silence. After waiting and listening for a length of time she couldn't measure, Oriko struggled to her feet and went to the door of the dark room. She put her ear to the door to hear anything. There was nothing, and there continued to be nothing for a long time. She slowly went to open the door, but froze when she heard another sound.

It wasn't a scream, this time. It was a screech. An evil-sounding screech moving past the door, like someone was running while making the ungodly sound. Except that no one was running. There were no footfalls. Maybe... she was just hearing things. Maybe she had mistaken something else for a voice, but what?

Pushing the door open, she peered into the lit hall. There was a low creak as something moved across the floor. Whatever it was, she couldn't see it, so she stepped out into the hall. There was someone standing down at the end. It wasn't anyone she knew, but they were in her home. Quietly pulling the blanket from her shoulders, she approached the stranger. They were standing awkwardly, their back to her, and staring into the wall. It didn't matter who they were. They were a house invader.

Suddenly, the intruder snapped to attention and turned to her. Their face was bloodied and red, half their jaw missing, and their flesh looked gray and dead, rotting even. She froze, just two feet away from them. The dead thing snarled at her and pounced, knocking her onto her back. It came down on top of her, jaws snapping at her neck. It met the blanket instead. Realizing she had some sort of protection, Oriko wrapped the blanket around the fiend's head, then scrambled back away from it.

She wasn't entirely sure what the thing's intentions were, but they definitely were not good. Raising her hand and balling it into a fist, she brought it down on the creature's head. She had long since determined that it did not count as a Human anymore. Beating on it's head brought expected results. With her strength, the expected results were nothing of consequence. She tried to wrestle the thing off of her and get out of it's grip, only to find it's fingers wrapped around her arm. As if she was given a miracle, the sleeve of her shirt tore off. The thing was left with her sleeve, and she was let to struggle to her feet and run.

Reaching the end of the hall, she turned and headed out towards the back. If nothing else, she knew her way around the gardens and they were always lit. She skidded to a halt when the back door came in view. It had been broken down, smashed into splinters. The hall lights began to flicker as she drew near. She heard a scratching sound coming from just outside. Fearing more and more that there might be another infected body laying in wait, her pace slowed down.

The lights went out entirely, and only the faint glow from the garden lights coming through the broken doorway remained. Crawling through the door, bony and bloody hands pulled this new thing into sight. She was suddenly glad there was so little light. It was like the other one, except that it's body had been torn in two. Stringy bits of flesh trailed behind it, leaving a grizzly line of red. That's why she was glad for the low light.

Crawling up to her and reaching out for her leg, the thing growled at her. She backpedaled and bumped into something. Turning to see what she had collided with, she saw the face of the first one. Backing herself into the wall, Oriko slid down to the floor. There was no escape. Their hands reached out for her, grabbing at whatever part they could find. As they moved their mouths in to feed, she closed her eyes. She had been through so much emotional pain. Now it was time for the physical pain.

The pain never got to her, interrupted on delivery by the sound of an axe splitting the air. Both of the attackers fell limply to the floor.

"Oh, it's you. I thought I smelled cowardice."

Oriko buried her head in her hands. Things hadn't exactly gotten better.


	8. Brain Stew

Kirika stood at the edge of her family's property. Someone was screaming in the distance. There were no other sounds. Figuring out the problem, she pinched her nose with her fingers and forced the air out through her ears, clearing them up a bit. Suddenly, everything was easier to hear. There were more screams, more distant or quieter, as well as a low moaning from much closer.

The door opened behind her and her mother stepped out. "Kirika, it's really late. Get back to bed." She stopped. "What's going on?"

It was dark, and it seemed the streetlights had gone out. Kirika realized that her mother could not see what she was wearing. Not that it mattered. She would find out sooner or later either way. Hearing her mother moving out towards her, Kirika held out her hand behind her. Her mother stopped, but Kirika could tell she expected something of an answer.

"Kirika… you should head back to bed."

Kirika shook her head, though she wasn't sure if her mother could see it. "We need to get out of here. It's not safe."

"What?" She sighed. "What's not safe, Kirika?"

Turning around, Kirika waited for her mother to react in shock at the sight of her daughter wearing the clothes of a Magical Girl. There was no shocked response, just the stare of someone who was slowly coming to figure out something. Kirika grimaced. It didn't look like the answer was going to reach her mother without some outside influence.

"Mom, I'm a Magical Girl."

Her mother nodded. "I can see that."

Kirika blinked in surprise. "Wha… that's it? That's all? You're not shocked? Even a little bit?"

The woman smiled wanly. "Kirika, I've known about Magical Girls since I was a little girl. My best friend became one. More than that, I know you. I saw you acting just exactly the way that attracts that little contractor's interest. The sudden change tipped me off. Seeing you like this just confirms it."

"Mom…" Shaking her head, Kirika looked up and down the street. There were people wandering towards their house. "We don't have time. Something bad is happening, and I… there's someone I have to check on to make sure they're safe."

"Oh?" Kirika made a face as her mother sidled up to her. "A boyfriend, perhaps?"

Grumbling, the black Magical Girl checked over her shoulder at the approaching people. There were more. "It's not like that. It's just... someone I care a lot about. I have to make sure she's not in danger."

A few moments of silence passed between them. The streetlights came back on, and Kirika saw a hellishly mutilated man standing behind her mother, hands outstretched in soulless desire. Without thinking, she struck out to defend her mother. Red claws materialized from her hands, whizzing past her mother's ear and impaling the man through his neck. He dangled there for a while, then continued as if nothing had happened.

"Mom, get back in the house!"

Not stopping to question her commanding tone, the elder of the two rushed away to safety. Kirika brought her hand up, tearing the man's head from his shoulders. The head landed a few meters away, splattering on the pavement. Kirika watched in disgust as two more horribly wretched bodies of the obviously living dead waddled closer to her. She rushed the first, ramming it with her shoulder while simultaneously driving her claws through its stomach. The body groaned, but not in pain. It lurched forward, sinking its teeth into her neck. Pulling away, and ripping out its side on the way, she put her hand to her neck. Feeling no damage, she looked up to see the walking corpse with a torn piece of her collar in its mouth.

The ruined body fell to its side, but quickly made to pull itself towards her with its hands. Without hesitation, she brought her claws down on its head. It stopped moving. She paused for just a moment, thinking out loud. "The head... the brain!"

Turning to the next one, she speared it through the eye. It immediately went limp, and slumped to the ground when she pulled her weapon free. It _was _the brain. She didn't have time to rest, as another one came into view the next second. She turned and ran back to her house. She knew their weakness, how to kill them, and how they moved. With that knowledge alone, she could protect her parents on the move.

Opening the door and running inside, she stopped at the dark main room. "Mom? We need to get moving! Get Dad up and let's go!"

Her mother appeared in the doorway, slamming her hand on the light noisily to turn it on. Kirika's eyes went wide at the sight of her. Her clothes were stained in blood, and she clutched a knife in her hand. She was bracing herself in the doorway to keep herself from falling, panting and out of breath. "Don't... there was someone in the kitchen. Your father... they attacked me... and he protected me... don't go in the kitchen."

Lowering her gaze, Kirika knew what had happened. She knew what this was. "So... it _is_ zombies."


	9. Resist And Bite

"Kazumi! Get up!"

Bolting upright, Kazumi saw her friend Kaoru Maki standing over her. Kaoru didn't waste any time, grabbing Kazumi and pulling her out of bed. Dragged headlong through their home, Kazumi was totally confused as to what could possibly have happened. They had made it almost to the door when she finally regained enough sense to pull away from her friend. Kaoru skidded to a halt, turning to grab Kazumi's arm again.

Kazumi pulled back. "Wait! What's going on? Where is Umika?"

Kaoru grabbed at her again. "We don't have time! We need to go! Now!"

The sound of thunder came from outside, alerting Kazumi. "Ah! The others are here!" She rushed around Kaoru and shoved her way through the door. Sure enough, the others were just outside. Saki and Niko were fighting something that was out of Kazumi's sight, and Satomi sat on the ground close to the door clutching at a nasty wound on her neck. It took a moment for it to sink in. "Where's Mirai? Satomi, are you alright?"

Jumping back, Niko turned to Kazumi. "Mirai is with Umika, and Satomi will be fine for now." The others all paused, returning to what they were doing a moment later. It was a strange reaction, to say the least.

Satomi took a deep breath, then looked up at Kazumi from where she sat. "Don't worry about me. She's right. I'll be alright for now."

A man jumped into the light surrounding the house, running at Niko. She effortlessly stepped around him and struck him with her weapon. He fell to the ground, and she brought the crowbar down on his head. Kazumi gasped in shock at the violent display that crushed the man's head. She looked to Saki to see what she was going to do about it. Surely she wouldn't let something like this go unmentioned. Instead, to Kazumi's surprise, Saki stepped back from the edge of the dark night, striking at another man who simply stumbled toward her. A bolt of lightning fried what appeared to be a normal human being.

The sight was so unimaginable, so foreign to her, that she felt herself coming to tears. "What are you doing? Why are you killing them?"

Saki looked behind her, shock showing on her face. Another man leapt from the darkness, tackling her to the ground and chomping down on her shoulder. She shoved him off, only to have him bite her wrist. Running to her friend to help her, Kazumi found herself held back but Satomi. Kaoru ran past her and delivered a hefty kick to the man's head, separating it from his body. Several more charged in after her, grabbing Kaoru and dragging her down to the ground. She threw them off of her without too much effort, rising to her feet as quickly as she'd gone down and helping Saki up. They retreated to the house.

Trying to stop the blood flow from her shoulder, Saki nodded to Kazumi. "I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do. They're not Human anymore." She looked upwards, and when Kazumi went to follow her gaze, Saki concluded her thoughts. "You three should head up to the roof. We'll hold them off the best we can."

Nodding, Niko jumped up and out of sight. Kaoru patted herself down for a moment, checking for any injuries, then wrapped her arms around Kazumi and jumped up to the roof. Niko was waiting for them, taking Kazumi and pulling her onto the roof. Kaoru turned and looked down at the girls still on the ground.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?"

Saki winced in pain, but managed to answer calmly enough. "We know what to do."

Kazumi watched the two wounded girls as they headed back into the house. "What are they going to do?"

Seeing that Kaoru couldn't find the words to answer, Niko spoke instead. "They're going to join Umika and Mirai."


	10. Disposable Heroes

Arisa ran through the dark streets of Hoozuki. She was well aware of the perilous state of the night and what was happening. Zombies were everywhere, around every corner, and even occasionally falling from the tops of tall buildings. She wasn't sure what had caused that to happen, but at least that was one less zombie to worry about. It still hurt, though, seeing people changed this way. She had even seen one or two students from her school. She understood that it was horrible.

She ran through the undead, shuffling around in groups, hacking off a piece here and there with her scythe. It was messy, but she might as well make use of herself on the way. The others had told her they were meeting, and she was headed to the location Chisato had given her. She lived the farthest from the place of the four girls, but she wouldn't arrive much later.

Approaching the park, she slowed down. She walked more carefully and quietly as she approached the fountain. This wasn't where they were meeting, but something had caught her eye. Sitting on the edge of the fountain, another Magical Girl watched her cautiously. It was Suzune. She was facing a different direction, looking over her shoulder at the pink-haired Magical Girl.

They had only just met, and she was only just now realizing Suzune was a Magical Girl, but at this point Arisa was going to be concerned for everyone. "We're meeting up. You should come too."

Suzune grimaced, looking away. "It's not worth the time. Get out of the city while you still can."

Arisa rolled her eyes. "We have to at least meet up first."

"No, you need to get out. It's dangerous in the city. More dangerous than you know."

"But the others-"

"The others knew." Suzune looked back to her finally. She reached down and picked something up off the ground. Holding it up for Arisa to see, she explained. "It would be wise for you to realize that we are not immune to this infection. Don't make the same mistake your friends did."

Arisa's eyes went wide. The object Suzune was holding was the severed head of Matsuri Hinata. "You... you killed her!"

Suzune stood up, turning to face Arisa. She uncharacteristically raised her voice. "I watched her die! I only destroyed the dead body after it got up and attacked me!" Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. "She was on her way to that meeting, and she had already been bitten. I have not seen the other two, so if you must insist on meeting then there is still a chance of finding them alive. However, I strongly suggest you leave this city as soon as you can. A zombie is dangerous, and a Magical Girl zombie is far more dangerous, but there are far worse things you may have to face."

It took Arisa some time to grasp what had happened. Matsuri was already dead, and Suzune just defended herself... Arisa gasped. "You're hurt!"

Suzune looked down at her own arm, the one not holding a head. "Like I said... a Magical Girl zombie is even more dangerous." Sighing, she dropped the head and drew her sword. "But don't worry. I'll save you the trouble of having to deal with another one."

"What are you...?"

Suzune angled the sword towards herself, pointing the blade up into her neck. Their eyes met for a moment. Suzune closed her eyes and gave Arisa her parting words. "Protect every person you find. Save as many as possible. Go find your friends."

Before Arisa's eyes, Suzune drove her own sword up into her head, the tip breaking out through the top. She fell to her side, unmoving.

Arisa stood alone in the park, now feeling like she was alone in the world. She had to find Haruka and Chisato. She still had friends to save.


	11. In A Darkened Room

Mami ran ahead of the crowd that were chasing her. Whatever had happened to these people, they wouldn't stop until she killed them. She could fight that battle forever, but only physically. She was not prepared emotionally or mentally to kill people, even if they were already dead. After only the first few, she was unable to kill any more. So she ran. She ran toward the closest building, a tall apartment complex.

Stopping at the glass front door, she looked in. The lights were on and she could see a man at the desk in the lobby. He was casually reading a newspaper, flipping the pages like a normal uninfected Human. Mami grimaced. She couldn't risk opening the door. In fact, she had to lead the crowd away from the door.

Turning, she sprinted off around the building. Leaping up and out of reach from the hungry horde, she landed on a balcony. She didn't want to break in to someone's apartment, so she tapped on the glass door to see if anyone was home. To her utmost surprise, Kyubey appeared on the other side of the glass, smiling up at her. Using his telepathy, the small alien was able to communicate through the glass.

"There's a girl in here who needs your help, Mami. No time to lose."

Something in the dark apartment moved, catching Mami's attention. It definitely wasn't a girl. It was stumbling about in no way a girl would ever allow herself to be seen emulating. It approached the door, placing its hand against the glass and leaving a bloody smear. It was a man, just like the others down on the ground. He had died and returned to some sort of perversion of life. It pounded on the glass, opening its mouth and groaning at her. Kyubey just sat there.

Taking a step back and making a face of disgust, Mami prepared a gun and aimed it at the man's head. She fired, shattering the glass and sending the man reeling back into the apartment. Immediately, a woman charged out of the dark at her. With another gun, she blasted the top of the woman's head. Stepping inside the dark and trashed apartment, Mami saw the door leading out into the hallway was hanging open. They were in the building, but for some reason not on the main floor. The sound of moans alerted her that there were more.

Leaping out of the darkness, another undead fell right into a web of yellow ribbons that left it hanging in the air. Mami wanted to limit how much damage she caused, so she left it. Two more clamored through a doorway from what she guessed was a bedroom, and a third rose out of the shadows behind her. Conjuring up two more guns, she aimed them ahead and fired, blasting apart both heads. Quickly, she spun and dropped one gun, whacking the other one into the third undead's jaw.

Wrapping the still-writhing creature in more ribbons, she turned and headed off for the bedroom. Looking in, she saw the room was empty aside from two things. A large bed that looked appropriate for a married couple, and some hulking thing that could not possibly be Human. Mami gasped at the sight of whatever it was. She raised her gun, preparing for whatever sort of fight she might be forced into. The... _thing_ roared, grabbing the bed and hurling it at her. The bed crashed into her, stopping at the doorway, but sending her flying into the main room and crashing through a glass table. The gun fell to the ground on the other side of the room.

Heavy footsteps told her that it was approaching. It broke the bed in half, shoving it out of the way, then shattered the door frame to get through. It didn't have to break the door frame, really. It just wanted to. Stomping over to Mami, it looked down at her with burning eyes, seeming to laugh at her. Bending over, it reached down to grab her, but stopped and looked up at the sound of another voice.

Sayaka stood, one foot up on the arm of her family's couch, shouldering Mami's gun and aiming it at the beast's head. She took a moment to comment on the creature in front of her. "You are one ugly motherfu-"

It roared at the blunette, interrupting her. She fired off the gun, blasting its face apart and knocking it onto its back. There was a moment of silence in the apartment. Sayaka stepped over to the beast, pausing as it shuddered and twitched. She aimed the gun down at its head. Its chest rose and fell, telling her it was still alive. She pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. Sayaka pulled the trigger again. She gave the gun an incredulous look. "The heck? Why won't it..." Faceless, but still alive, the monster started rising off the floor. Sayaka backed up. "Uh... oh crap. He's pissed."

Mami appeared beside her with a fresh gun, firing it into the beast's chest. Sayaka coughed on the resultant cloud of sulfurous smoke. She opened her eyes to see the creature dead and still. She looked over to Mami, handing her back the gun.

Mami accepted the gun and sighed. "They're expendable. They don't really fire more than one shot."

Sayaka turned red. "Okay. I guess, uh... thanks for the rescue."

Mami nodded, offhandedly tossing the expended guns onto the couch. "Same to you, then." Her eyes landed on Kyubey. "So then... do you mind telling me what that was?"

Kyubey smiled.


	12. Bonded By Blood

Momo peered out the window. There were strangers all around their house, pounding on the doors and shoving at the walls. It was as if they had lost all semblance of sanity. Everything she could see was madness. Closing the curtain, she turned back to her mother and sister.

"The police will come soon enough, right?"

Kyoko shrugged. "Sure... if we called them." Momo went for the phone, only to have Kyoko stop her. "I already tried it. Phones are down. Can you get me some disinfectant? My arm is stinging."

Jumping up, Momo headed for the kitchen and retrieved the first aid kit, hauling it back. "Is Kyoko gonna be okay? Momo can help..."

Kyoko stopped her. "I..."

Momo took a deep breath. "I... can help."

"Better." Kyoko opened the first aid kit, shaking her head. "And no, you can't. Don't worry. This'll heal up soon enough. I'll pump some magic into it and clean out any infection, too. Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Surprising her older sister, Momo closed the first aid kit. "Show Kyoko's arm to Momo."

Reluctantly, Kyoko obeyed. She really only wanted to get it over with so she could get back to doing it herself. Momo held out her hands, holding them over the scratches on Kyoko's arm. There was a bright glow under her hands, and Kyoko felt a warm tingling sensation. She gave Momo a quizzical look. When she was done, the younger sister stepped back. The two of them looked at the skin on Kyoko's arm. It was perfectly healed up.

Momo took a deep breath. "Kyoko should be fine now."

"Momo... are you...?"

The younger sister smiled. "Momo is Kyoko's sister, so Momo will act like it."

Kyoko was silent for a moment, then slowly cracked a smile. "Then you'd better stop referring to me like I'm not here."

"What's going on?" The girls looked to the doorway to see their father standing, looking between them in shock. "Momo, what are you doing up at this hour?"

Kyoko got up, walking to her father. Momo stepped in front of her, addressing their father first. "Daddy, there are people outside. They're trying to break in!"

He looked at Kyoko. "Is this your doing as well?"

Kyoko fell back, shocked at the accusation. "Wha- no! They're not even people! They're monsters that are trying to get in and eat us!"

Turning his back on her, he walked out of the room and headed for the front door. "If they are as you say, then there is only one way to be rid of them." Running after him, but unable to stop him, the girls watched as he opened the door. Standing right in front of him was a deranged, rotted Human body, already moving towards him in the hopes of something to chew on. At first a little shocked by what he was faced with, his shock quickly turned to determination. He held his hand out at it. "In the name of God, be gone!"

A low growl came from it, but it did not stop. Kyoko saw it reaching for her father's arm. She went to grab her spear, only to realize she had left it in the other room. Before she could move to shove him out of the way or otherwise protect him, the door slammed in the undead monster's face. Kyoko and her father stood and stared in surprise. Momo stood with her back to the door.

Panting, the young girl smiled up at them. "That's why God gave us doors, Daddy. To help keep the evil outside." Neither responded. There was silence between them for a long time. Finally, Momo spoke again. "We should all stay together in the living room. Mommy fainted, so we need to keep her company. Kyoko can protect us."

Even as they returned to the living room, the two would not look at each other. Momo wasn't blind, and she wasn't stupid. She had no intention of falling asleep while her family was in such a dire situation. Her father fell asleep in his chair, his face becoming more peaceful than she had seen it in days. Kyoko fell asleep too, laying down on a windowsill. Momo watched her sister carefully, hoping and praying she would be alright, and holding her breath every time Kyoko's arm twitched on its own.

The illusion magic wouldn't last forever.


	13. Mad World

Junko woke up the instant her blanket was pulled off of her. It was still dark, so there was no justification for it, and that gave her cause to be mad about it. She shot up out of bed, already prepared to give someone a real scolding. Her hangover pulled her back to the bed. Most of her energy that would have been used for being angry was gone.

"Ugh... What the hell is going on? Why'd you wake me so early?"

Madoka helped her mother up. "There's a car in our living room."

"Wha...?"

"Someone drove a car through our front window."

Junko groaned. "Well, that sucks. Why'd they do that?"

The two of them stopped out in the hallway. Tomohisa came out of Tatsuya's room, carrying the toddler in his arms. He beckoned Madoka to follow him, heading down the stairs and out to the back door. He slid the glass door closed behind them.

Madoka looked around, confused. "Why are we back here?"

Tomohisa handed his son to Madoka. "Stay here and stay quiet. I need to check that it's safe."

As he left, Junko looked over at her daughter. "What's safe? Are there other cars...?"

Tomohisa let Madoka answer for him. He pushed his way through the garden he had set up in the backyard until he reached the wall. Pulling himself up, he looked over the wall. It was dark, but not so dark he couldn't tell something was wrong. There was a noise that shouldn't have been. Something creaking, and clacking together like teeth chattering, and a gurgling sound. It all sounded wrong, like some sickly horror movie had come to life in front of him.

It looked worse than it sounded. The neighbors' lights were on, and there was blood smeared all over the window in hand-print shapes. The streetlights beyond that were flickering, but when the light was there he could see drunken-looking people stumbling about in large numbers, and they were moaning in a mindless unison. He looked up a bit to see what it was like further on. Just as he raised his gaze, a bright orange plume appeared in the distance. He gasped and quickly got down from the garden wall. The world had gone mad.

Hurrying back to his family, he knelt down and put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Are you able to walk fast?"

Junko scrunched her face up painfully. "I'd fall over if I tried."

This was bad. Someone needed to carry Tatsuya so he could go ahead and check things out to make sure it was safe, and Madoka wasn't strong enough to do that without slowing down too much. Junko needed someone to help her along, so moving fast was right out. And Madoka... If he wanted to get them out of here, he had to leave someone behind. But not just one. He would have to leave two. Leaving only one behind would sign multiple death warrants.

If he and Madoka went, he could rely on her more than the other two right now, but that would be leaving the other two helpless. He could drag his hungover wife around, but that would not only place him at the most risk, and therefore her, and therefore their children, but it would also leave Madoka with the impossible responsibility of keeping her little brother safe. Or he could carry his son with him, putting them both in a lot of danger, but at least Madoka and Drunko could figure something out between them.

His final option was to sit here with them and wait. While it meant he could protect them all best, it also made them all vulnerable to anything coming their way. Nothing seemed like the right choice...

"Madoka, help you mother up." Madoka obeyed quickly, as Tomohisa scooped up his son again. "We're going into the cellar and we're going to try and hold out for as long as we can."

Madoka looked worried. "Why? What's going on?"

"A lot of things are going on. We need to get somewhere safe as soon as possible."

As they headed back into the house and made their way down to the cellar, Tomohisa heard a loud voice behind him, coming from the streets several blocks over.

"_A state of emergency has been declared for the greater Mitakihara metropolitan area. Please go inside your homes and lock your doors until this is resolved. Do not go outside. I repeat, a state of emergency has been declared for the greater Mitakihara metropolitan area. Please stay inside your homes and lock the doors until it is resolved. Do not go outside._"


	14. Down With The Sickness

Mako dialed her phone again. "Come on... come on, come on, come on! Shit!" The woman through her phone at the wall in frustration, shattering it. She popped a cigarette in her mouth, glaring around the room as she lit it. She put her lighter back in her pocket and took the cigarette out for a moment. "Where is that kid? Yuma!"

Peering out from her bedroom, a small girl with green hair replied shakily. "M-Mommy?"

The woman growled at her scared daughter, putting the cigarette back in her mouth. "If you're not ready to go, I'm leaving you here. We have to get out of the house."

Yuma stepped out of her room all the way, still dressed in her pajamas. "I'm ready to go."

Mako could see that this very much wasn't true. She also didn't care.

A voice came blaring into their apartment through the open window. "_A state of emergency has been declared for the greater Mitakihara metropolitan area. Please go inside your homes and lock your doors until this is resolved. Do not go outside. I repeat, a state of emergency has been declared for the greater Mitakihara metropolitan area. Please stay inside your homes and lock the doors until it is resolved. Do not go outside._"

Yuma couldn't quite understand what all the message was saying, but she knew what 'do not go outside' meant. "Why are they telling us to not go outside."

It didn't feel to Mako like she had to answer that question. It's not like Yuma would understand the answer anyway. "Come on, we're going."

The little girl followed her mother all the way down to the entrance of the building. There was someone else wandering around the lobby, but they were ignored. The walked out the door and continued on down the sidewalk. Mako seemed to care very little for all the people they passed, regardless of how strangely they were all acting. All the people wandering around the way they were was frightening to Yuma. Mako knew there was something bad happening, but she had naturally assumed that all the people were out and about to get away from it.

She stopped at the corner, finally getting the feeling that she had been mistaken. Thoughts of heading for the shelter left her mind as another thought invaded. "They should still be giving out that announcement. I should be able to hear it somewhere."

"Mommy..."

Mako put her hands in her pockets. "Shut up, I'm thinking." She looked around. The crowd of people seemed to be getting thicker. "The hell is going on?"

"Mommy, why are they looking at us like that?"

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Damn it, Yuma. I told you to shut up." She couldn't think with that child blabbering all the time. She took the cigarette out of her mouth for a moment and gave another look around her. Then she saw it. Sitting only a few meters away on the sidewalk, a black and white jeep with a loudspeaker system on top sat on its side. The driver, covered in blood, was visibly crushed in half under the vehicle. The cigarette fell from her mouth.

"Mommy!"

Mako turned at the abrupt scream to see Yuma running towards her and hugging her in fright. This simply didn't happen. She looked to see what could possibly have caused such an unusual event, only to see the snarling face of her neighbor in front of her. His nose was missing. Her eyes darted around and she realized that everyone was wounded in some horrendous way. They all shambled mindlessly towards her and her daughter. Yuma clung tighter to her, making it hard for her to run unless...

She grabbed Yuma's hand and pulled her off, then ran for the overturned jeep. With the horde just two seconds behind her, she ran around behind the jeep. It was the only route left even remotely clear. Running full-throttle down the sidewalk was normally easy for her, but it was harder tonight. She was slower than usual. As she ran, she found solace in the fact that at least Yuma had stopped talking.

Yuma was breathless, tired, scared, and also a bit hungry, but that all seemed to disappear. She couldn't stop now, even if she wanted to, with her mother's hand clamped around her wrist.


	15. The Thing That Should Not Be

"Stop the tank! Stop the tank!"

The APC stopped, and Hitomi's mother glared back at her. "It's an Armored Personnel Carrier."

Ignoring her, Hitomi ducked back inside. "There are people out there! A little girl!" Poking her head back out the top, she started calling to the nearby people. "Hey! Over here!" She climbed out against her mother's protests. "Come on!"

Kaito, in the gun turret, ducked down and reassured the woman. "They're not infected. We're safe so long as we get moving again as soon as they're in."

On top of the vehicle, Hitomi reached down her hand to help up the woman and the child with her. She was hit with a sense of urgency when she saw the shambling masses behind the two. "What in the... Hurry up!"

Mako pulled Yuma forward, lifting her up and handing her to Hitomi quickly, then pulling herself up onto the top of the APC. Hitomi jumped back down through the hatch, caught Yuma and moved out of the way for Mako. The APC started moving before Mako was even in, causing her to lose balance and fall through the hatch. She landed on her back and, after a moment of shock, coughed painfully.

Hitomi set Yuma down and reached up to pull the hatch closed. She looked over the two they had just saved. Her heart was racing almost as fast as her mind. What really just happened? Did she really just save this woman and her little girl?

Mako sat up, moving herself to the padded seats. She groaned loudly, rubbing her head. "What the hell was that? What's wrong with those people?"

Hitomi sat down, watching as the little girl obediently sat down beside her mother. She shook it off. "My mom says they're infected. I don't know what that means exactly, but she says they're dead. They're the dead coming back to kill the living."

Mako ran her fingers through her hair. "Shit... and it's just the five of us?" She leaned forward, looking past Kaito at Hitomi's mother, who was driving the vehicle.

Hitomi nodded. "Yes, I-" She was cut off by the entire APC going over several large bumps.

Her mother called back. "Sorry about that. A few of them got in the way. Hitomi, dear, get back up and keep an eye out for more survivors."

As Hitomi went to obey her mother's orders, Mako started looking around the back of the APC. Finding what she was after, she opened up the hatch beside the one Hitomi was looking out of and stood up out of it, leveling the assault rifle out towards the night. Hitomi gawked at the gun.

Mako shrugged, nodding towards the turret. "There's a bigger one right there."

Hitomi shook her head. "No, I know, but I didn't realize that was in there. You know how to use that?"

Mako looked over it. "Hmm... can't be too hard."

The teen grabbed it from her. "It's best if someone who knows how to use that has it."

"Are you kidding? You're just a kid. Don't tell me you know..."

"I do. My parents made sure I knew how to defend myself properly."

Mako relinquished the gun. "Fine." She rolled her eyes. "Rich people with their privileges."

The APC stopped, and Kaito appeared in the turret again. "There's someone ahead of us. I believe it to be your teacher Miss Saotome."

Hitomi quickly handed the gun back to Mako. She turned and climbed out onto the top of the APC, calling out to the person ahead. "Hello! Who's there?"

Sure enough, Miss Saotome called back. "Oh, thank god! Someone else is alive! What's going on?" She stopped when she saw Hitomi. "Miss Shizuki?"

Hitomi held her hand out. "Come on, we need to go. We're heading to the military base." The teacher took her hand and climbed aboard, joining the group.

Inside, Hitomi took a moment to introduce herself. "I'm Hitomi Shizuki."

The teacher looked over the woman and little girl beside her inside the APC. "Uhm... and I'm Kazuko Saotome. What's your name?"

Mako was busy sifting through her pockets for something. She looked up, distracted. "Huh? Oh, Chitose. I'm Mako, and this is my daughter Yuma."

Kaito called down. "A lot of them ahead! Get ready!"

Hitomi jumped up, grabbing the gun from Mako's lap. "I need this now." Climbing half out the hatch, Hitomi saw the crowd of shambling undead in front of the APC. They were headed straight for them, and there was nowhere to turn. Kaito was in the turret just ahead of her, so she called to him. "Can we just drive right through?"

He shook his head. "No way! The crowd's too thick! We need to thin them out first!"

"How much?"

"A lot!"

The turret started firing, shaking the entire vehicle and deafening everyone inside. Taking a few moments to recover, Hitomi aimed the rifle and fired. In the headlights from the APC she could see red splatters flying through the air, mists of blood sent flying in amongst the crowd. The frontrunners fell, and those behind them scrambled over their fallen bodies, only to fall a moment later. More bodies fell to the ground, and Hitomi stopped firing. She saw a taller person in the middle of the crowd. They stood up to their full height, and she froze.

Horns.

A monster stood in the center of the horde, horns affixed to its head. It roared over the sound of gunfire. Its glowing eyes fixed on her. She could see a sickly green light coming from somewhere below, rising up. Holding its hand up, she could see the green light was a flame held in its hand. Snapping back into action, she fired several rounds at the beast, tearing through its chest and shoulder. It inspected the damage for a second, then glared back at her. Then it stepped forward, flinging the flame at her.

Hitomi closed her eyes, expecting to feel her body burning in the next second. A scream later, she opened her eyes to find herself still alive. Green smoke was billowing out the turret hatch where Kaito had been. Mako suddenly pushed her way out through the hatch, taking hold of the turret. She aimed it in the general direction of the horde and pulled the trigger, stopping the next second.

"Fuck! That hurts!"

Hitomi shouted up to her. "Get the big one!"

Mako looked over the top of the turret and spotted the target Hitomi was talking about. "Oh, shit! What kind of fucker is that?"

Hitomi kept shouting at her. "Kill it! Kill it now!"

The turret spat lead at the monster in the crowd, blowing its head apart and flattening a good amount of the crowd as well. The undead were moving forward, not filling in the gaps. The middle of the crowd was thinner. Hitomi could tell her mother saw it, as they were still going straight at the mass of hell spawn. They were going right through.

Hitomi braced herself against the sides of the hatch just as they hit the first undead, smashing it into the ground. Once she was used to the shaking, she let go and aimed her rifle into the hordes just below her, their filthy hands reaching up to grab her. Bullets sprayed into the horde, blasting the tops off heads and tearing through torsos.

"Hey! Up here!"

Hitomi looked up just as they were heading under an overpass. At the other side, she watched as three young girls vaulted over the railing. They landed on the back of the APC. One, a blue-haired girl wearing a cape with an axe strapped to her back, quickly caught a fourth girl who dropped down after them. Hitomi opened another hatch, and they quickly dropped the scared-looking blonde girl inside. Closing the hatch, the blunette grinned.

"Alright, now we're moving. Erika! Koito! You hold that side! I'll help on this side!"

A younger blunette drew two hatchets, and a blonde girl produced a large drill. They started swiping their weapons at the masses as they drove through. Mako kept the turret trained forward, practically constantly holding the trigger like she didn't understand the concept of ammunition conservation. The girl with the axe drew her large weapon and knelt down beside Hitomi, casually swinging at heads as they passed.

"Name's Komaki Asako! That's my sister Koito, and Erika Mamiya! The girl inside is Oriko Mikuni! Where are you guys headed?"

Hitomi shouted back, not holding her trigger finger as they went. "Hitomi Shizuki! We're headed for the military base!"

Another green flame flew overhead. Mako ducked halfway into the turret. "Motherfucker! What the fuck is that!?"

Hitomi scanned the area, spotting the culprit. "There! Demons!"

Komaki looked where she was pointing and saw three of the horned beasts. "Oh, damn, you're right! They do look like-" A green flame hit her in the face, knocking her onto her back.

Hitomi screamed and opened fire. The bullets scored, ripping through the monsters' knees and causing one of them to fall forward. Amazingly, Komaki got up again beside her. The girl raised her axe, aiming it at the monsters. A bluish barrier appeared in the air around the monsters, trapping them. On the other side, another demon rammed into the side of the APC. Erika pulled her drill back and drove it into the beast's head, the point coming out its back and spraying red everywhere. Another one appeared, shooting a green flame at the APC. It hit the wheels, knocking the whole thing on its side.

Komaki hit the ground and rolled. Hitomi managed to duck inside just before the APC flipped. Erika jumped to safety. Koito leaped the opposite direction, brandishing both hatchets, landed on the monster's shoulders and hacked at its neck. She pulled back, ripping its head clean off, and jumped down before the evil corpse hit the ground.

The APC was totaled, upside-down. Komaki, Erika, and Koito backed up to it as the hordes closed in. Inside, Hitomi's mother climbed over Kaito's burned corpse. She located the weapons compartment and pulled out the rest of the guns, handing them out and smashing at the back hatch. Outside, Komaki turned and, in a single motion, cleaved the back hatch off its hinge. It fell to the ground with a metallic sound. Hitomi stepped out with her mother, rifles raised. Mako followed, wiping blood from her forehead, with Kazuko and Oriko behind her. Yuma stayed back, hiding in the APC until she was called.

Hitomi called out behind her. "Yuma, come on. We need to keep moving." The younger girl came out and took her hand. Hitomi turned back to the fast approaching swarm.


	16. Spreading The Disease

Kyosuke felt utterly useless. Sitting in a wheelchair, his hand destroyed and his legs simply not functioning, he could do nothing but sit and listen and try not to listen as people screamed and panicked on the other side of the door. Somewhere close to twenty other people, of all ages and walks of life, sat with him. The girl next to him was openly sobbing.

The door opened briefly, and a young woman stepped inside. It was the nurse who normally tended to Kyosuke on the night shift. She looked over the hospital patients, visibly shaken by whatever had happened just outside. She was on the verge of breaking down in front of everyone. If someone didn't step in...

A girl with glasses and black hair braided into pigtails leaned across in front of the small white-haired girl. "What do you think is going on?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. There was screaming, and now there's just-"

The door shattered, breaking down behind the nurse and knocking her into the people crowded in the room. A pile of screaming demonic-looking people covered in dark blood crawled over the door and into the room, hands clawing and teeth biting. Patients screamed in pain as the undead teeth sank into their flesh. The nurse watched a man's throat ripped out in front of her, then screamed, turned, and shoved her way through the room.

Kyosuke felt strong hands grab him and lift him up. He was hoisted over someone's shoulder before he knew it and carried to the window. And then he was falling, shoved out the window. He landed on a table out on the balcony for the room. Two men and three women managed to get out onto the balcony, the men carrying the two girls with them. The nurse was the last one through, and the other women shut the glass door behind her. A bloody hand hit the glass the next moment. The girls were put on the floor, and the men moved Kyosuke off the table and to their side before overturning the table and placing it in front of the door.

They all took a moment's pause.

The girls, two of the women, and even one of the men all looked in shock. Kyosuke felt it too. It was hard to breath with the thought of what just happened. What even did just happen? He had no idea. The nurse came into the room, and then suddenly there were people crowding in and there was screaming and shouting, and now they were outside with bloody people clamoring to get out after them.

The nurse shuddered. "Now... now everyone... listen to me. Those people in there... it's too late to save them."

One of the men stepped in front of her. "What, we can't even try? What the hell is going on?"

She shook her head. "No, it's just too late, and if we try we risk ourselves. We... at least we have these children here. We got them out of there... but it's not over yet. They're going to break through that door and come through that window any time now. They're all infected, and once you're infected you're driven to attack everyone else."

Kyosuke looked up at the nurse. "Is that what was happening out there? When you moved us all into that room?"

She looked at him, recognizing him. "Ah... yes. They came in infected and... they spread the disease through biting mostly, but it can be any transfer of fluid. A scratch or a cut... ingestion."

The man looked over to Kyosuke. "This is pretty heavy, kid. You okay?" Kyosuke let out a deep breath and shook his head. The man knelt down in front of him. "I'll get this other guy up and about, and we'll see if we can get these girls to safety. My name's Daisuke Itagawa. What's yours?"

"Kyosuke Kamijo."

The nurse offered her name, catching on. "I'm Tae Ota." She pointed at the girls. "I work with all the kids, so I know them. That's Homura Akemi and Nagisa Momoe." The girls didn't respond to their names being used.

Daisuke glanced around them. "Alright... Kamijo. Miss Ota. How do we get out of here?"


	17. Countdown To Extinction

Kyubey had watched, fascinated, the first time he saw one of the Humans biting chunks off another. He had seen it before, but not quite like this. The one being bitten was still alive, but slowly slipping away. The one biting had already died, and another soul had entered the body. Seeing the movement of souls helped a lot in investigating this strange occurrence.

He'd had to act fast. The number of prospective Magical Girls had dwindled suddenly and alarmingly. He had to hurry with what was left, and get as many as possible. He had discovered that the distinct properties of this virus were practically tailored to usurp all his work on this planet. An infected Magical Girl was dangerous beyond a Witch, as they maintained their resilience and power. To make matters worse, they did not become these shuffling undead either. Their souls were already separated from their bodies, and the process that created the undead involved ejecting the soul from the body. The process was much easier with magical Girls, and thus they were dropping off at an alarming rate. The worst part was that they didn't become Witches, and therefore no new energy was created.

It was an energy crisis, in effect. Kyubey needed to find as many girls as possible and turn them to Magical Girls as quickly as possible. Erika Mamiya had contracted when told her friend Kirika was already a Magical Girl. Koito Asako was just as quick to jump at the chance to join her sister in battle. He had several good choices lined up, but it was silly to presume he could contract them all before some were lost. Sayaka Miki, Oriko Mikuni, Yuma Chitose, Nagisa Momoe, Homura Akemi, Madoka Kaname, Hitomi Shizuki... they were the top choices, in that order.

He knew Oriko, Yuma, and Hitomi were all together. Nagisa and Homura were also together. Madoka was with her family, so her survival chances were no less than anyone else in this situation. Right now, Sayaka Miki was his priority. She was currently holding the largest karmic destiny of all of them, and had been all alone until the little Incubator had led Mami Tomoe to her. She had yet to contract, but with everything that was happening it wasn't likely to take too long. Getting to the other girls afterward was going to be a challenge like Kyubey had never faced before. This virus certainly effected creatures other than just Humans.

An Incubator had been bitten. He could sense the mindless death through their race's telepathic link, But it was too late. Long story short, Kyubey was the only one left. He had no spare bodies remaining. It had all happened too fast for any sort of countermeasures. The only thing good was that the virus did not reanimate his kind. Everything was lost. But his mission remained. If this last body was lost as well, the mission would fail and the entire universe would die. So the stakes were higher than the survival of the Human race, but everything depended on it.

There were unanswered questions. Would the Human race survive? If not, would he be able to find another race with the amazing properties that made Humans so valuable? And about all of this... why? Why would these souls, and the other things, dare to destroy the only known race standing between the universe and ultimate annihilation? Furthermore, Kyubey had to wonder, would he be capable of reproducing on his own?

All aside, as soon as he realized the threat, he set up a signal to deter others from coming to this world. The virus could not spread, or there would be no universe to save.

All this, Kyubey thought silently. Not a single word of it did he say while Mami Tomoe was in the room.


	18. In The Still Of The Night

"Mom, stop. Hold up."

"What is it?" The woman's voice held concern.

Kirika grimaced. "Someone's coming."

They had been making their way through the streets as quickly and quietly as they could manage, and had run into very few zombies for their troubles. Kirika had been feeling for several minutes now that their luck was bound to turn around. If her senses were telling the truth, then that turn had arrived.

Behind Kirika, her mother whispered urgently. "Is it more zombies?" They had both adapted to using the term very easily.

Kirika shook her head. "No… it's worse. Another Magical Girl."

As if on queue, the predicted girl stumbled into the glow of the nearest streetlight. Kirika didn't know her, but the other girl recognized what the two of them had in common immediately. She called over. "How are you faring?"

Kirika didn't feel like shouting across the distance with a horde potentially around the next corner. "Stay close, Mom. I don't want to leave you back here, but there's no telling what she'll do."

The distance between them closed. The stranger gave a tired smile to Kirika. "Why are you… carting around useless baggage? Having to protect someone… will get you bit."

Kirika looked to girl up and down, noting her torn clothes. She was scratched and bitten all over. "I'm not abandoning my mother, but… I'm guessing you're speaking from experience?"

Shaking her head, the girl held out her hand. "I'm Rina. I was trying to protect my family too. Didn't really work out, but I'm sure you can see that."

Kirika made quick work of shaking Rina's hand. "So… what do you know? Are you gonna heal up, or do Magical Girls turn into zombies just like everyone else?"

Rina sighed and shook her head. "Everyone that gets bit burns up with fever before they die. I don't… I feel cold." She coughed, clearing her throat. "But something is happening. I can feel it. I… don't want to find out what happens when a Magical Girl comes back."

Kirika knew her mother was standing right behind her. She didn't want to look at her right now. Her claws appeared out of her long coat sleeves. "I don't want to find out either."

Rina smiled. "Well… you've only got one person to protect. Maybe you'll do better than I did. I had three."

Kirika sighed. "Sorry to hear that." She plunged her claws through Rina's body, then ripped them out the side, spraying blood onto the street. The girl dropped to the ground on her side. Kirika slashed her claws through the body, tearing her head off and sending it flying.

It was silent for a long time, but Kirika didn't want to turn and face her mother after that. She didn't know what to say, and she didn't know what her mother would say. She didn't want to know right now. When her mother spoke, it surprised Kirika.

"Where's her soul gem?"

Kirika turned to look back at her. "What?" She looked around on the ground. "Uh… shit."

"Kirika!"

She nearly jumped out of her skin. "Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, get down!"

Kirika ducked without question, looking behind her to see what was coming. Something flew overhead. She didn't catch what it was exactly, but she could feel the heat coming off it. Whatever it was, it slammed into the ground nearby and exploded in a ball of flames. Seeing that her mother had not been hit, Kirika began to look for the source. She didn't have to look far.

A horde of zombies had been creeping up on them from the dark, and were now all around them. But the zombies held back. One thing stood ahead of the crowd, head and shoulders above them all. Leathery brown skin studded in boney spikes, long wicked claws, a mouth full of yellowed fangs, and glowing red eyes. More fire formed in its hand, and it seemed to smile.

Kirika stood, facing the monster head on. She kept her voice level and calm, though she was far from calm. "Mom… get ready to run."

Looking around and seeing they were surrounded, her mother asked, "Run where?"

"Right behind me."


	19. Melt

Kaoru peered over the edge of the roof. "They're still there. At least it doesn't look like they've gotten inside."

Kazumi let out her breath, taking a moment to breathe. "What… what's going on? What happened?"

Kaoru shook her head, looking to Niko for help. The green-haired Magical Girl just grimaced. Kaoru sighed. "We don't really know, but… well, have you seen any zombie movies?"

Kazumi shook her head. "No, they're always too scary for me."

Kaoru grumbled. "Well, that's a lot of help."

Niko pointed out across the yard. "The bodies of the dead return to a living state devoid of the soul that previously inhabited them and possessed by a deranged soul of pure evil with a single-minded goal to devour the living. If they get a hold on you, they will tear you apart limb from limb."

Kazumi looked between the two of them, frightened. "What? But… how do you know that?"

Niko shrugged. "That's pretty much the idea behind your average zombie movie." She swung her weapon over the edge of the roof, causing a jet of black liquid to squirt up at them. "They've started climbing. We need out of here now."

Kaoru crawled over to Niko. "If he was right there, then they haven't just started. Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

Instead of answering, Niko stood up. "Kazumi, get up. We need to get out of here right away."

Kazumi did as told, pleading with Niko for a plan. "You must have thought of something."

Kaoru stood up as well, peering over the edge of the roof cautiously. "I'd say I hope it's not crazy, but there's nothing we can do in this situation that wouldn't be crazy."

Niko sighed. "True enough. I can't think of anything that might work that doesn't involve a decoy."

Seeing the others were having difficulty coming up with a plan, Kazumi offered an idea. "We should see if we can get back inside and help the others out. You said they hadn't gotten in yet, so Saki and Satomi should still be safe."

Niko and Kaoru exchanged glances. Kaoru spoke first. "Can we?"

Niko shook her head. "Too dangerous."

Kaoru didn't move. "We don't know what'll happen."

"That's..." Niko looked over her shoulder at Kazumi for a second. "That's wishful thinking, but it would be worth knowing either way. If they're alright, then we can help them."

Kaoru nodded. "So what if they're not alright?"

"We do what needs to be done. We may also need supplies, and we can get that inside." Niko turned to Kazumi. "We should do it, but we need to be very careful."

Kaoru looked over the edge again. "Yeah. Okay, here's the deal. We'll get in through Kazumi's bedroom window. They're all piling in over here, climbing over each other. They'll be up soon enough at this rate, but Kazumi's bedroom is over there. Niko, can you make us rope or something?"

"Done." Niko's hand shot forward and buried itself in the roof, connecting to her arm by a cable. She remained stoic. "I'll go in first. Climb down after me."

Without waiting for any argument, she jumped over the edge and swung down to Kazumi's window, kicking it open and landing safely inside. She detached her hand, placing the end of the cable on the ground and merging the two together. By the time she reached the door, Kazumi and Kaoru had already started on their way down. She opened the door and started slowly moving through the house. They didn't know what happened to an infected Magical Girl, so the caution may have been all for nothing, but she didn't want to be caught off guard.

She stopped at the top of the stairs, and the others rushed to her side. She looked at them for a moment. "Be careful. Kazumi, gather up everything we'll need on the run."

Kaoru nodded and headed down the stairs. "I'll get the food."

Niko followed her down. "I'll make sure everything is secure. As soon as you hear me say that it's no longer safe, come back to the stairs. Don't wait for anything. If you see the others, call me before you approach them. We don't know everything about what's going on, so we don't know if they're alright."

Kazumi called down after them. "There's something you're not telling me about this, isn't there?"

Kaoru turned and looked back up at her. Niko didn't. Kaoru took a deep breath. "Okay, Kazumi, listen. If you'd watched any of those zombie movies you would have known already. When a zombie bites you, you become infected and then you die and become another zombie." She held up her hand to stop Kazumi, adding on, "It might be different for Magical Girls. We don't know. So… keep your hopes up."

The two hurried down the stairs, with Kaoru splitting off to the kitchen. Niko headed straight for the nearest window. Pulling the curtain aside, she looked out expecting to see bloodied hands pressed up against the glass and slack-jawed mouths moaning out hungrily. Instead, she was shocked to see the crowd of undead no less packed together, but keeping their distance from the window. There was a space of only a few inches, but they seemed to refuse to cross it even when she tapped on the glass.

"Why are they staying back?" She mused to herself.

Kaoru's voice called out of the kitchen. "Niko, I need your help here!"

Turning and rushing into the kitchen, Niko skidded to a halt. "What is..." Kaoru was kneeling in front of a pile of black dust on the floor. There were several other piles of similar unidentifiable substance. Without another word, Niko produced a smartphone from one of her many pockets. Kneeling down beside her fellow Magical Girl, Niko held the device close to the fine dust. Several seconds passed, and she brought it back and inspected the information on the screen.

After too long with no answers, Kaoru prompted Niko. "What is it?"

"Ash. Organic material burned into nothing but ash."

Looking up at the shelves along the wall, Kaoru frowned. "Is that why the vegetables are all gone."

Niko looked over to her curiously. "...That's… much more preferable than what I was thinking. Check to see if anything else is missing."

After rummaging through the room for a minute, Kaoru came back with an answer. "Bread, meat, fruit, all burnt to a crisp or worse. Cans are either melted or exploded. Why didn't anything else..."

Niko interrupted, getting back onto her feet. "The counters and table are made from marble. And there's..." Her eyes landed on something on the table. "Hold on." Repeating the process with her smartphone, Niko investigated a strange pool of golden liquid in the center of the table.

Kaoru put her hand close to the puddle as soon as Niko drew back. "It's still warm."

Niko made a face. "It's gold. Molten gold. We need to get out of here now."

Without warning, Kaoru grabbed Niko and pulled her down. They could feel the heat as something screamed overhead. They jumped up and made a break for the stairs without taking the chance of looking to see what had attacked them. A moment after they were out of the kitchen, the first creature was joined by others. Piercing screams came from their hellish mouths as, engulfed in flame, they pursued the pair of Magical Girls.


	20. Bridge Over Troubled Water

Arisa was getting tired of running. She wasn't physically tired, just bored. She could have kept on going for hours before she was the least bit tired for real. Her objective wasn't far now. She knew the place and it was just across a footbridge. She had reached the footbridge. Matsuri was gone, and that was sad, heartbreaking even, but what was done was done and now she had to find Chisato and Haruka.

There were, of course, some bodies in the streets. Even more, there were the zombies. They were everywhere. What they lacked in speed, they certainly made up for with numbers and just generally looking like normal people. Needless to say, reanimated corpses were no match for a Magical Girl wielding a scythe.

Beginning her jog across the footbridge, she quickly stopped again at the sound of gunfire. If there was someone alive nearby, she had to try and save them. If for no other reason than to have someone to talk too. It wasn't out of her way, anyway. The gunfire was coming from ahead of her. It was close, even. On the bridge ahead of her.

The gunfire stopped, and she saw why. Whoever it was, they got a face full of something more than what the zombies should have been capable of. A bright orange flair shot across the bridge far ahead, exploding upon contact with someone. It looked like a full on honest to God fireball. Too bad about the person, she thought, but fireballs were neat enough.

Breaking into a run, hoping to catch whatever could hurl fireballs off-guard, she ended up finding herself showing up late to a party. The scorched corpse looked like it had already been a zombie. The gun that had been firing was being put to use by none other than her friend Chisato Shion, who had her back to the approaching Magical Girl and didn't even notice.

The fireball had clearly come from the other girl, the one who had Chisato's back. Brown hair up in a ponytail, the girl grinned. The cheerful look, combined with the sword and overly fancy white dress told Arisa everything she needed to know. This was a Magical Girl. Probably the fireballer.

The girl glanced around in search of more zombies. "Hello there. I'm Ayase. What's your name?"

Chisato turned to look at whatever Ayase was talking to, genuinely surprised at what she found. "Arisa? You made it! Good, now we just have to wait for Matsuri."

Arisa stopped her. "That's too long a wait. She didn't make it. Where's Haruka?"

Before Chisato could react to the news of Matsuri's death, the question was answered. Haruka Kanade sprinted into view, dragging one very sleepy-looking girl along with her. Arisa felt a distinct 'ugh' sound rising in her throat when she realized it was none other than Mika Nishinaka. It was a mild nuisance. No real bother. She'd dealt with the girl long ago.

Haruka stopped when she reached them, hauling Mika along for the ride. "Well, I found someone. Oh, good, Arisa, you made it. Okay, everyone, we need to be getting the hell outta here right away. We have a lot of really nasty stuff incoming."

Chisato stepped up to her. "Haruka, Matsuri didn't make it."

Haruka, surprisingly, didn't seem to think they had the time to care. "Yeah, okay, but we need to move right now!"

Arisa looked at her around Chisato. "Haruka, you're yelling."

Ayase added in, "Also, I think she was swearing."

Haruka was nearly frantic. "Get moving!"

Arisa shrugged. "I've been popping off undead heads all night. No problem."

Ayase nodded. "More is no problem."

Chisato held up her hand. "Wait a moment, do you hear that?"

Haruka suddenly turned, her breath catching in her throat. The others all followed her gaze. What they saw froze them. Standing on top of the office buildings across the bridge, several horrific creatures stood. Bony frames coupled with bulky shoulders, arms too long to be Human, and, oh yeah, they were clearly at least ten feet tall. Their shoulders, of all things, lit up. It took them all a moment to figure out what was happening.

"Shit." Arisa grabbed the nearest person, who was Ayase, and threw her over the edge of the bridge. Reaching for the next two, she managed to grab both Haruka and Mika and pull them to the railing. Trying to hoist them both over at once, she lost balance and fell with them into the water.

A barrage of rockets exploded on the footbridge. Chisato disappeared from sight.

The next moment, Arisa broke the surface. The water was up to her chest, but manageable. Looking up, she saw the bridge in flames. "No! Chisato! Get out of there!"

Haruka burst from the water, a freshly awake Mika following after her and shaking the water from her. Haruka grabbed Arisa. "I was trying to warn you! They're different! They're monsters! Demons!"

Arisa grabbed Haruka's hands and pried herself free. "Damn it, get off me! What are you talking about? Demons? Are you crazy?"

The shouting match continued, Haruka shouting back. Arisa had never seen her like this. Angry, but more than that, frightened. "I was there! I saw the whole parade of the things! They're straight out of hell! I mean it! From the bloody damned shores of hell!"

Ayase burst from the water between the two of them, screaming in sheer pain. It was easy to see why, too. It was the thing on her face, its monstrous claws digging into her eyes. Whatever it was, it looked like a cross between a possessed bug and a possessed Human baby. In other words, it was clearly pure evil.

Haruka whipped up her spear, cleaving the thing in half. Insta-killed, it dropped back into the water. The forearms, however, along with the sharp claws, remained attached to Ayase's face.

Arisa held the girl still. "Get those out of her!"

Haruka reached in, grabbing the arms and pulling them free. The claws looked nasty, and they were, but of their four-inch length less than one inch had gone in. In spite of all the blood, she managed to find it in her to reassure Ayase. "It'll hurt for a while, but you'll heal."

Ayase had clearly started to try to cry, but it wasn't easy with bloody holes where her eyes should have been. "I can't see anything. Are my eyes still even there?"

Mika, horrified by everything that had just happened, suddenly felt like there was something behind her. She turned, wiping wet hair out of her face, and then screamed. Another one, the tiny abominable things that defied every Human sensibility, jumped out of the water with its claws aimed for her throat. She turned away from it, shielding her face with her arms. In a panic, she had managed to find a relatively good way to protect herself.

It landed on her back instead, claws digging into her shoulders. Its lower body, ungodly fly-like lower torso, scratched at her back and tore at her shirt, ripping through the fabric and into her skin. Having heard her scream, Arisa was not far off with her scythe at the ready. She swung it in and up, the point hitting the abomination in its chest and impaling it. It came off quickly, flailing around wildly and screeching while stuck on the scythe.

Mika staggered away. She reached over her shoulder and touched the wound on her back. "Oh, God! How far did it go in? What did it do to me?"

Arisa looked at the end of the creature's rear, which looked like it might have held a stinger, then at the blinded Magical Girl. "The same thing it did to Ayase. Be happy it missed anything vital."

Mika practically screamed at her, though it was mostly fueled by sheer terror of what had just happened to her. "How do you know!? How do you know it didn't inject venom into me?! Or infect me?! Or lay eggs?!"

Arisa flicked her wrist, sending the dead creature flying several meters before landing on the bank of the river. "If it laid eggs inside you, I'll scramble them and cook them with bacon for breakfast."

Ayase perked up, hearing something. "I think I know where to get the bacon."

Haruka spotted what Ayase had heard. She felt like throwing up at the sight. She pointed to the shore, then averted her eyes. Arisa and Mika looked over to the shore. The small abomination rested on the gravelly dirt, at the feet of a bulky, fatty, ugly, monster. With its pink skin and the pig-like noises coming from its throat, Arisa realized the likeness.

Arisa stared at the monster at the water's edge. "What… what the _hell_ is going on?"


	21. Infernal Death

Sayaka watched as the big carcass in the middle of the room disintegrated, turning to ashes. She turned to Mami. "The space ferret explained to me pretty much what's going on. So, I get that this thing is something like, I dunno, a demon. And you're obviously a Magical Girl. I mean, you definitely got the look down." She looked to the corpses around the room that looked plague-stricken. "And those are clearly zambies."

Mami nodded, sitting down on the couch. "That's… well, I am a Magical Girl, so you got that right. As for that… thing… I can't say if your assessment is accurate or not. And these others appear to be reanimated bodies of the deceased. I don't know whether this is because of a virus or some form of magic, but-"

Sayaka interrupted. "That's what zambies are." She glanced toward her room. "We obviously need to go somewhere else, so I need to get a few things gathered up." She pointed Mami over to a door near the window. "The kitchen is through there, so you can get something to eat if you want. We'll need supplies, so feel free to stock up on whatever you like. I won't be long."

Mami pushed herself up and headed to the kitchen. The door was slightly ajar, but she could only see darkness beyond it. Pushing her way in, she found the light and turned it on. She froze at the sight of the kitchen. The room itself was fairly normal, but Mami immediately recognized what was unusual.

It's hard to miss a naked corpse hanging from the ceiling by its feet, especially when its lifeless eyes were less than a foot from your own eyes. Bloodied cuts ran along the body, leaving red lines tracing all the way down to the head and dripping off of the hair. The mutilation culminated in a gaping hole of gore between where the legs met.

Stepping back, Mami gagged at what she was seeing. It was taking a lot not to throw up where she stood. She knew she had to at least go further into the room to find anything salvageable, but there was no way in without pushing past the remains of the poor man. Steeling herself, she squeezed past him, hugging to the wall to minimize physical contact as much as possible. She got away feeling like blood had dripped all over her head, and one of his dangling arms had brushed against her chest.

The rest of the room was hardly a relief. The first thing she noticed, now that she could look at it without a corpse hanging in the way, was a severed head on the counter. The face was frozen in a scream, most likely the expression the woman had died with, and now the head had several butcher knives sticking out of it in every direction. Headless, her body lay on the island in the middle of the room, stripped of clothes, wrists slit, and a burning red pentagram carved into the marble beneath her.

Trying her best to block out the sight, Mami opened several cupboards and the fridge. There was nothing of use, as everything inside was always covered with blood. It was like whatever had set up this heinous display intentionally destroyed any supplies. Closing the last cupboard, Mami steeled herself to push past the man again. Then she heard Sayaka's voice.

"Oh God!"

Rushing out into the main room, ducking under the man without a care to how much red got on her. She found that Sayaka had gotten only a few feet away from the kitchen before she vomited all over a dead zombie. The younger girl spat out the last bit, then glared behind her at Mami. The connection was obvious to Mami. A man and a woman, brutally killed in Sayaka's home. There seemed no question as to who they were.

Sayaka shook her head. "That was… just… wrong. It…" She looked to the disintegrating body. "That thing is a demon. I'm sure of it. That was just so… evil." She stood up.

Mami put her hand on Sayaka's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry? You didn't do that." Sayaka sighed and headed back towards her room. She turned into another room, the washroom, and went about rinsing her mouth out. When she came back out she still looked like she was sick, but as she picked up a bag that was leaning up against the wall, Mami saw that the girl had set her jaw. The defiant look told her Sayaka was ready to challenge death.

Mami stepped over the death scattered across the floor to the door that led out to the hallway. "We should be going. Are you going to be alright?"

Sayaka nodded. When she spoke, her throat was dry, but she at least didn't sound like she was hiding something. "I know what we're up against. I should probably do that contract thing the space ferret mentioned next time it shows up."

Mami looked around the room. Kyubey was indeed nowhere to be seen. "That's strange…"

Sayaka leaned against the wall beside the door. "And, Mami? It's not as bad as you think. I know… I knew them. They were my neighbors." She looked back over the apartment. "My parents aren't here. I don't know where they went, but they're not here. Now… that doesn't make it better. It just makes it… easier… for me. You know what I mean?"

Mami sighed, then nodded. "I think so. Here." She held up a rifle. "It'll help in a pinch, give you a little room, and give me time to step in."

Shouldering the bag, Sayaka took the gun. "Yee… You know we gotta save as many people in the building as we can. I'm not saying I expect much, but we gotta check all the closed doors."

Mami summoned another two guns. "Yes. I'm not about to leave anyone behind to suffer that fate."


	22. DooM

Kyoko shot up into a sitting position, covered in cold sweat and gasping for air. It took all of her willpower to keep from crying out in pain. She lifted her right hand up to see, but it seemed perfectly normal. After a few moments of staring at it, the pain went away. She shook her head and pushed her feet onto the floor. As she stood up and walked out of the living room and down the hall, the shock of the pain and the adrenaline wore off and the grogginess one gets after waking up hit her. She stumbled the last few feet to the washroom, groaning as she opened the door.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she slapped her face with both hands. Turning on the tap, she quickly splashed cold water on her face. Wiping the water out of her vision, she looked at the mirror again. For a split second, she thought she saw fire behind her in the mirror. Spinning around, she frantically scanned the entire bathroom. There was no sign of anything being out of place, much less on fire. Turning back to the mirror again, she found herself face to face with the hideous empty eyes of a skull. She jumped back, flailing as she tripped over the floor mat and slammed into the wall.

The room was silent for a minute before she came to. Reaching up, she grabbed on to the side of the bathtub and shakily pulled herself up until she could see the mirror again. She was sure of what she had seen. It had been a skull face instead of her own. Now, she found her face normal. She was seeing things, or someone was messing with her mind.

Kyoko burst from the bathroom and ran down the hall, talking to herself. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to..." She stopped at a window and pulled the curtain back. The was a crowd of at least thirty just at that window. The window was too high off the ground for them to put much pressure on it, but... She ran the other way down the hall. "Oh, God, I'm gonna die. I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to die and go to hell. Oh, God, I'm so stupid. I should never have made that stupid contract. I don't want to die. I don't want to die."

"_Some deep shit you're in, kid._"

Kyoko spun, looking for the source of the voice. She wanted there to be someone, in spite of all the bad things it would mean. At least it would mean she wasn't hearing voices in her head. "Who's there? Where are you?"

"_You can called me... Mister S. I will be your guide through the last moments of your life. And... I am all around you._"

She stopped in the middle of the hall. "All around..." Wind ruffled her hair. Kyoko turned slowly, looking down to the end of the hall. The door hung open. "Oh God... Oh God, no." She started running. "God, please no. Please, God, no!"

"_I am all around you, young one. I control them all. They follow my commands._"

Kyoko stopped halfway between the front door and the living room door. She started pounding at the side of her head. "Stop talking! You're not real! I'm just imagining things! You're not real!"

"_If I'm not real, then how come none of them are in your house yet? No, they've been waiting for me to give them permission. So... Kyoko Sakura, if you give in and join us, you will not die here. In fact, I will extend this offer to your little sister as well. The two of you can survive this hell together._"

Kyoko was not listening. "It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. Wake up, Kyoko, this is just a dream. You're sleeping right now. You're dreaming."

"_...Very well then. ENTER!_"

She was pulled back to reality by the sound of windows shattering coming from everywhere in the house all at once. And the sound of the door in front of her being crushed underfoot. A behemoth with fiery yellow eyes and demon horns stomped through the rubble. It took all her willpower, but she turned and ran away from the beast, crashing through the door to the living room. Three tall monsters with brown, leathery skin with a number of bony spikes stood in the room, bearing down on her sleeping family. Backing them was an even uglier flabby fat pink beast with a head larger than her entire body and claws that were inches from Momo's legs.

Kyoko was filled with a rage she'd never felt before. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!"

She had forgotten her spear when she'd left the room, but now two more spears appeared in each of her hands. A dozen more of the red spears she favored appeared in the air and quickly buried their tips in the floor. Hefting the first two, she launched them at the nearest brown-skins. One was impaled and pinned to the wall behind it while the other ducked out of the way, though the spear sliced its arm clean off at the elbow. Both roared in pain and anger, hissing their rage at her, but neither dying.

Pulling two more spears from the floor, she launched them as well. Now that she had the attention of everything in the room, she had room to breathe without having to worry about them attacking her family. The third spear hit the monster pinned to the wall, splitting its head in half and leaving it hanging limply. The fourth spear went clean through the pink monster's head, coming out the other side in a spray of gore.

All this had happened in the space of five seconds. Five seconds during which Kyoko's father had opened his eyes and witnessed his daughter flinging the large weapons of war expertly at a number of intruding demonic visages. Momo scrambled to a safe hiding place, watching from the corner while her mother lay asleep on the couch still. The brown-skin that had lost an arm reached its other clawed hand out towards Kyoko, only for her to grab another spear and quickly cleave the beast in half. The final brown-skin stood behind her father's chair, moments away from grabbing him in its claws.

Kyoko shouted at him. "Get down!"

He pushed himself out of the chair and onto the ground just as its claws swiped after him. All it caught was the shaft of a spear that punched right through the back of the chair as well as the monster's spine. It gaped and gurgled a moment before collapsing. Somehow still moving, the pink thing charged her. Readying two more spears, she waited until it was in range and drove them straight through its hunched head torso.

Faces of several undead appeared in the windows. Kyoko quickly snatched up and hurled three more spears in rapid succession, scoring dead-eyes on all and knocking the zombies back onto the ground. Picking up two more spears and spinning, she turned to the door just as the massive demon busted down the door frame. One after the other, she launched both spears into its chest. Its response seemed to be little more than a grunt, and it kept coming.

Kyoko shouted back to her father as she pulled the last two spears from the floor. "Get Mom up and hide somewhere! Don't leave without me or you'll be defenseless!"

Disregarding whatever they did, whether obeying her orders or not, she prepared for the fight. The spears both separated into their chain-linked form, and she began whirling them around her at the same time. Ignoring the spears sticking out of its chest, the demon held out its hand, palm facing up, and a green flame crackled to life. Kyoko closed her eyes for a second, and a cage of red chains formed around them. Then several more Kyoko's popped into existence around her.

"God? If you can hear me, please help us get out of this mess alive."

"_So, Kyoko Sakura... you've declared a one woman war... ON ALL THE FIRES OF HELL!_"


	23. Face 2 Face

Kirika was running flat out, her mother running right behind her. The zombie horde was closing in all around them. Every time one of them got within her reach, she would slash it apart with her claws. She had long lost track of where they were heading, but she could tell they were still in the suburban residential district. Whether or not they were on a familiar street was impossible to tell. Nowhere looked familiar when filled with undead.

Behind them, the brown monster chased at a steady pace, smashing through any zombies that got in the way. It roared after them, throwing orange flames over their heads. She hadn't the slightest clue what it was, but she knew to keep it as far away from her as possible. Her hopes of maintaining the distance was steadily dwindling. She could keep up the run for a long while, but there was no way she would abandon her mother, who was quickly tiring. The monster hadn't shown any signs of tiring, and Kirika was beginning to think it might be best to stand and fight.

She skidded to a stop in front of a quiet house, swiping away any nearby undead before pointing her mother toward the front door. "Find a cellar and hide! A basement or something! Anything! I'll be right behind you!" It was in a moment like this that she was glad her mother knew about Magical Girls. There was quick, brief eye contact between them that told her her mother trusted her and her power to combat this monster.

With her mother disappearing inside, Kirika hoped she would find her alive later. For now, her death was certain if she'd stayed on the street. As it was, the monster allowed her gamble and slowed to a stop in front of her. It stood towering over her, staring down at her with hungry glowing eyes. A deep gurgle came from its toothy maw, and the horde stayed back as if on command. The stare-down lasted nearly half a minute.

Kirika glared up at her foe, mustering as much of a mad look as she could. "What the hell are you?" Though she did want to know the answer, she in no way expected an answer any time soon. She would be surprised.

In a rumbling voice, the beast answered her. "**Imp. Demon.**"

"Well..." There was nothing for it. Claws out, she plunged her hand towards its chest.

The Imp grabbed her arm and twisted it, pulling her off balance and forcing her arm behind her back. Placing its clawed foot on her back, it kicked her away. It kept her arm. Dropping the severed limb, it stalked over to her and put its foot on her chest. As it pushed down, she could feel the crushing force breaking things inside. She gasped and tried to cry out, but couldn't tell if she was making any real sounds. The ringing in her ears made it impossible to tell. She could see the Imp's mouth moving. She couldn't hear it, but from the expression on its face she assumed it was laughing.

Then _he_ appeared.

Kyubey.

The Imp looked over, somewhat surprised by the small fluffy critter sitting on its shoulder. Kyubey looked into its eyes, and the Imp froze. Then he looked down to Kirika, speaking to her in her mind.

"Do not get too used to me directly interfering like this. There is another Magical Girl in that house right there. Teaming up, you should stand a far better chance." He looked back at the Imp. "Now..."

Kyubey's eyes flashed, and the Imp crumpled and folded into itself. The weight on Kirika's chest was taken away, and Kyubey landed beside her. His eyes shimmered, and in a flash of light her arm was back. Shooting up to her feet, Kirika picked up the tiny creature.

"How did you..."

"What? Do you think I can give you magical powers without having any myself? If you're quite done, we should head inside."

Sure enough, the zombie horde was closing. It seemed the death of the Imp lifted whatever kept them at bay. Turning, Kirika bolted across the front lawn and barreled through the front door of the house. It became immediately apparent that this wasn't an entirely secure place to hide, as there was already a car in the living room. She'd thought the front of the house looked unusual. Shutting the door behind her, she found her way to a door that led downstairs. Busting down the cellar door, she was greeted with a strange sight.

Down some old wooden stairs, a man and a woman, along with a little boy, were sleeping on an old couch sitting in the corner of the mostly-dark underground room. Wooden shelves filled with action figures and comic books took up most of the space. Other than a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, there was only one source of light. On the other side of several shelves, the flashing and flickering of an old television caught her attention. Stepping around the shelves, she saw an empty chair with an abandoned controller, and a 'game over' screen.

An arrow poked Kirika's neck from behind. "I was less than a minute away from a high score, so I really hope you have a good reason for coming in here and endangering my family."


	24. Don't Turn Your Back

Hitomi set her rifle on the top of the wall, then hauled herself up. Looking over the other side, she called down behind her. "Clear! Send Saotome first!"

The teacher was lifted up to her, and Hitomi helped her up and over before climbing down beside her in the parking lot behind a hospital. Mako got over the wall next, taking Yuma with her, and Koito joined them right after. Rifle raised, Hitomi scanned the lot for any movement. There was nothing, but she knew better than to relax here. By the time she was done her sweep, her mother had gotten over the wall and Komaki had carried Oriko to safety. Erika was last, landing beside Mako and Yuma.

Hitomi heard her mother explaining their plan, now that they all had a moment to breathe. "We need to get out of the city. If we can get to the Army base, we'll be pretty well off."

Komaki pointed up at the hospital. "Do we rescue them first?" The entire group looked up to see a small group of people on a balcony. They were too far off to properly tell if they were infected or not, but they couldn't leave without finding out.

Hitomi heard her mother whisper a quick command across the group. "Ignore them. We have to worry about ourselves."

That didn't seem to be the answer Komaki was looking for. She gripped her axe tightly and dashed off toward hospital. "I'll catch up with you later. I gotta check this out."

Hitomi ignored the sound of her mother swearing and made to follow Komaki. She managed to catch up to Komaki only because the Magical Girl wasn't running at full speed. They didn't exchange a word until they reached the hospital doors. Hitomi ducked in beside the door and peered inside.

"They're everywhere." Komaki twirled her weapon in her hands. "Those people are on a balcony. That room was probably breached, and that's why they're out there. How much ammo do you have?"

Hitomi checked her weapon over. "Two and a half clips."

"How many shots is that?"

"Seventy-five, maybe."

Komaki grimaced. "Okay... don't waste ammo." Hitomi answered by simply putting the gun in single-shot mode. Komaki shook her head. "This is clearly an 'aim for the head' type of situation. Anybody wandering about in the halls among them is one of them. Don't hesitate."

"Open the door."

Komaki smashed the glass door with her axe and climbed through, ducking under the bumper bar. Hitomi followed quickly, raising her weapon at the first undead in sight. Komaki had already split its head open and moved on through two others directly in their path. Komaki was clearing the way, leaving Hitomi to keep others off their tail. There were enough of them closing in to warrant it, too. Instead of squeezing off rounds, Hitomi found herself closing doors to trap zombies that were off in side rooms. Down a hallway off to the side, Hitomi spotted a large number of zombies. She also spotted some kind of security gate.

"Komaki." Hitomi pointed up at the security gate. "Can you pull that down?" Wordlessly, Komaki reached up and hooked her axe on the gate, dragging it down to the floor. Hitomi nodded. "Ammo conserved."

A blast of fire struck Komaki's back, knocking her onto the ground. Hitomi ducked around the corner, only getting a brief glimpse of the leathery monster that had attacked them. Komaki wheezed, but didn't try to move. Another fireball flew past, hitting the opposite wall and exploding dust and fragments everywhere. Hitomi broke cover and lined her sights up on the monster, some kind of spiny beast with large fangs and claws. It was forming another fireball in its hand. She pulled the trigger twice, watching as the shots ripped through the monster's chest, knocking it back but not stopping it. She put another one in its head, but it still stood.

She took cover again, switching back to semi-automatic. "This thing doesn't die. Komaki, are you alive?"

Komaki didn't move, but did answer. "I'm gonna stay here. You got this."

"I'm gonna waste a lot of ammo on this thing if you don't help!"

"Fine! Damn!" Komaki rolled over to Hitomi's side, backing up against the wall. "So you want me to just smash it, then?"

Hitomi nodded. "If you please. It doesn't seem to have the best sense of self-preservation. It just stood out in the open."

"Okay." Komaki took a deep breath. "Here I go."

The blue-haired Magical Girl leaped out from their cover and sprinted across the hall, kicking off the opposite wall and launching herself at the monster. It barely had the chance to roar out a response before she smashed the head of her axe into its face and ripped its head clean off. She stood in the mess of blood, holding herself up with the shaft of her axe and trying to catch her breath.

Hitomi rushed out to join her, stopping just short of the ugly remains. "Are... are you alright?"

Komaki shook her head negatively. "No. I'll heal, but you really need to take the lead. I'd tell you to leave me here, but you can't go running around in here alone." Her Magical Girl clothes vanished, leaving behind nothing but the soft pajamas she'd been wearing before the outbreak started. "Bastard hit me good. I need to rest up."


	25. High Speed Dirt

"Kazumi! We're busting outta here right now!" Kaoru shouted as she and Niko raced up the stairs together.

Niko stopped just short of the top step, letting Kaoru run on ahead. She turned and faced down the stairs, sensing that something was coming. "Get her and let's go. We are out of time."

Behind Niko, Kaoru rushed to the nearest door and threw it open. "Kazumi!"

The doorway exploded in flames.

Kaoru was sent flying past Niko, crashing into and through the far wall and landing outside somewhere. Niko turned, everything around her seeming to slow down. Splinters of the door and the walls flew around in the air, which she shielded her face from with her arm. Stepping through hole where there had been a door, a giant horned monster held Kazumi with its huge clawed hand wrapped around her neck. It glared down at Niko with burning fiery eyes.

"**You care for this one?**" Its voice was something straight out of hell. It didn't wait for her to answer. "**Then she will join the others.**" The beast took Kazumi's soul gem, holding it up for Niko to see. It seemed to admire the gem for a moment, inspecting it. Then, at its touch, the gem began to grow dark, clouding with the sheer evil being poured into it by the monster's presence. It seemed to smile. "**This is the fate that awaits all of your kind. Your bodies will become revenant. Your souls lost.**"

Flames erupted from Kazumi's soul gem, and it floated out of the monster's hand. Kazumi began to writhe, her body cracking like it were some porcelain doll that had been dropped. It released her, letting her fall to the ground. Eyes blank, she stared at Niko. There was nothing there anymore. He body broke apart, crumbling and falling away like a cocoon. The flames around the soul gem obscured the stone from view, but something was growing inside the fire. Just as the fangs of the lost soul became visible, molten gold dripping off of it, the first skeletal arm of the revenant reached out of the fading ashes of Kazumi's body.

Niko wasn't about to wait around to see more. She kicked off the top step, launching herself at the hole in the wall Kaoru had made. One of the monsters, she couldn't tell which, fired something explosive after her, blasting apart the entire side of the house as she landed on the grass. The undead horde, those that hadn't been caught in the explosion, quickly moved to surround her. She instinctively readied her crowbar weapon, swinging it at the closest zombie and taking off its head.

They were closing in on her. As much as she swung the crowbar around, shattering their skulls and splitting their bodies, more crowded in. She lodged her crowbar in another of the shambling corpses, but lost her grip when the weapon got stuck in its rib cage. When she tried to grab the weapon to pull it free, the zombie snapped down at her arm. To avoid being bitten, she jumped back, but the circle had closed in even more around her and she fell back against a wall of undead. They immediately started to try and bite. One lucky zombie sunk its teeth into her forearm.

That was the last straw. Niko knew now what had happened to the others. Umika and Saori, Saki and Mirai, they were all gone. Even Kazumi, and probably even Kaoru were gone now. Not only were they gone, dead, but they had been changed into worse monsters than the zombies themselves. She wouldn't be another one.

Niko's free hand morphed into the shape of a rotary saw. It whined as it spun, and she sheered through the crowd with it. Bringing it up, she closed her eyes and brought the blade down on her other shoulder, even as she transformed her lost arm into a rocket. Stumbling forward again, she swung the blade around her, cutting through every zombie in the front row. Their blood and bowels spilled all over the grass as each of them collapsed. She aimed higher as the next line moved it, splitting their throats open and sending heads flying. The horde moved in behind her, and was quickly flattened as the severed arm exploded.

The giant demon appeared at the hole in the wall, dropping down to the ground with a force that made the whole yard shake. Lost souls rocketed past it, screaming and burning as they flew. The beast snarled at her. "**Why keep resisting? When you know there can only be one end.**"

Kaoru appeared, falling from the sky. Where she'd come from, Niko had no way of knowing, but Kaoru was still there. She wasn't alone.

The blonde Magical Girl landed on a pair of undead, splattering them from head to toe. She looked up at the beast. "I wanna know what happens to you when you die."

It roared. The lost souls that had been circling around the horde flew up and dove in at the pair of Magical Girls. Kaoru kicked at a pair of zombies that had lunged at her, then jumped back, doing a handstand and kicking one of the lost souls out of the air. It shattered and exploded. She righted herself and turned to Niko, who was spinning around and around, cutting any and every zombie that came near into several parts.

Kaoru stopped her from spinning. "Time to leave. For real this time. Do what you gotta do." Kaoru jammed her fingers into the open would on Niko's shoulder, where there had been an arm. "Pick a good weapon and change me back when we're done!"

Struggling to use more of her power, with the tremendous pain of losing an arm making it all the more difficult, Niko managed to transform Kaoru's entire body into an oversized steel-plated arm attached at her shoulder. Balling it into a fist, she brought it up and snatched two of the lost souls out of the air, crushing them into dust as flames burst out of the fist. Smashing it onto the ground, she switched the hand into a cannon. When she moved the arm to aim the cannon at the beast, she flattened another three zombies. A lost soul swooped in overhead, but she swatted it away with the saw arm, sending it spiraling into the horde where it exploded.

The revenants burst through the roof of the house, climbing out and focusing their gazes at her. There were three. She couldn't see the other two, as she assumed there were two more. They had what looked like cannons of their own attached to their shoulders, which they were aiming at her. She raised her cannon and fired at the first revenant. A bolt of plasma scorched the air, going right through the last lost soul like it wasn't even there, and smashing the revenant's rib cage apart. It collapsed and fell off the roof.

The other two launched rockets at her from their own cannons. She rolled forward, slicing through two more zombies and keeping the cannon steady. The rockets screamed past her, blowing up the horde behind her and scattering their burning remains around the yard. She fired again, taking the head off the second revenant. Just as she was aiming for the last revenant of the three, the other two appeared around the corner of the house. The giant demon took a step toward her as well, snarling and lighting a green fire in its hand. The two revenants launched their rockets at her.

Niko spun, detaching her arm and hurling it at the beast. On the way, it transformed back into Kaoru, who was now flying at the beast feet first. Of the four rockets heading for Niko, she angled herself to dodge three of them. The fourth hit her in the shoulder where she was once again missing an arm, but she morphed it into a new arm the instant she made contact. Niko rolled forward, changing her saw hand into a shovel which she dug into the ground. At the end of her roll she flung a shovel full of dirt at the pair of revenants. Midair, the dirt changed into napalm, hitting the revenants and burning into them, cutting through the bone that made up their bodies. They fell apart and burned to the ground.

At the same time, Kaoru hit the demon. It had tried to grab her, but when its hand met her feet, its entire arm exploded. Flying past, she grabbed the side of the beast's body and landed behind it. She jumped at the wall of the house and kicked off, spinning through the air and bringing her foot down on its head. The beast fell into itself, its head disappearing into its body and its torso splitting open. It spurted ichor and puss for a moment before falling forward and splattering on the grass.

"Kaoru!"

The zombie horde was still closing in, and the last revenant was preparing to fire. Kaoru ran to Niko and jumped on her back. As soon as she was there, Niko slammed her fist into the ground, sending a shockwave of transformation through the entire property and making a crater. Zombies scattered and flew away in pieces in all directions. The house was blown away, taking the last revenant with it.

The dust settled. Kaoru jumped off Niko's back. She let out a low whistle at the sight of the destruction around them. "That's pretty impressive. Why haven't you done that before?"

"It is extremely taxing." Niko groaned as her Magical Girl outfit faded. "We can't do that again. We need to get out of here."

"Where do we go?"

Niko sat down, taking a deep breath. She looked up at Kaoru. "Kazumi is gone."

Kaoru looked away. "...I saw."

"She's the reason we all became Puella Magi." Kaoru was about to respond when Niko beat her to it, answering herself. "I guess all we have left is... the reason she became one."

Kaoru looked back at her. "What? What do you mean?"

Niko stood up. "The Puella Magi that saved Kazumi, and was the reason she chose to become one as well. If it wasn't for her, we would have died a long time ago. We owe it to Kazumi. So we owe it to Mami Tomoe."


	26. Another Way You Can Die

Sayaka kicked open another door into another apartment. She didn't know who exactly lived here, but having lived in the building all her life she was sure she would recognize them. The adrenaline buzz of the night was keeping her from focusing too well on which door was which, but she was certain she could still tell a shambling corpse apart from a still-living person. She could also probably definitely tell a locked door apart from an unlocked door, and if there was one thing she'd learned tonight, it was that she was made for kicking down doors. She was beginning to think she might have to look for work as a police officer or a firefighter.

The room was clear, though. Not a sound or a single sign of movement. The owners must have been out when everything started. She tried to close the door again, only to realize the lock was busted. Leaving it, she moved on to the next door, which was also locked.

Down at the end of the hall, Mami called to the younger girl. "Are you almost done? We need to get moving!"

Closing another broken door, Sayaka shouldered the rifle Mami had given her. "After we're done here, I have to go check on my friends. I really don't think this is the kind of thing Madoka would do well in, and Hitomi is a spoiled rich girl so she's probably scared out of her mind."

Mami sighed. "If you're so worried about them, why are you spending so much time here?"

"Well, what if they came to get me and then went and hid in one of these other apartments?" Sayaka shrugged. "Or, you know..." She kicked down another door and stopped. "...Nakazawa?"

* * *

Oriko hid behind a hedge, hoping that nothing was creeping up on them. She looked down at the gun in her hand, a handgun that seemed huge resting in her palms. She had no idea how to hold it. Beside her, Miss Saotome looked just as lost with her own weapon. Sitting snugly between them was Yuma, on the verge of crying. Koito and Erika were keeping an eye out for any more of the walking dead. Not far off, a much fiercer battle was taking place.

"Listen, Shizuki. They said they would catch up with us later. The plan, _your_ plan, was to go to the military base. You wanted to meet up with your husband, right? He might be able to find a way to fix this disaster, right? We need to get there as soon as possible! It's the safest place to be! That's what you said, isn't it?"

Hitomi's mother struggled to pry Mako's hands off her shirt. "Get... _off me!_ I'm not going _anywhere_ without my daughter! We wait for them!"

Mako shook her, refusing to let go. "You took responsibility for us! For me and _my daughter! _What are we supposed to do? Every second we waste, those things get closer! You took responsibility for all of us when you let us on that big metal wreck, and I'm not letting you abandon us now!"

Shizuki grabbed her opponent's shoulder, pressing her fingertips into the muscle. "I didn't let any of you in! That was Hitomi's decision, and now you want to abandon her!"

"They said they would catch up to us! Aaah!" Releasing her grip, Mako hit Shizuki's hand away from her and clutched her shoulder. "Fuck you! We can't get there without you! We don't know where we're going!"

"I was against them going in there! I tried to stop them! What did you do?" Shizuki raised her voice. "Now I don't even know if my daughter is coming out of there alive!"

Erika called over. "Something's coming."

Shizuki reached down and grabbed her gun off the ground. "Get ready." She turned to walk away. She knew something was wrong when Mako's hands wrapped around her waist. "Wha-"

Oriko, Yuma, and Miss Saotome watched in awe, almost forgetting where they were, as Mako lifted Shizuki over her head and slammed her into the ground.

Koito noticed as well. "My, what a fine German suplex we're seeing this evening."

Leaving Shizuki lying on the ground, Mako picked up her own gun and reached her hand out to Yuma. "Come on. We're leaving. You girls too. We can't stay here."

Oriko pushed herself up, urging Yuma to go to her mother. "Which way are we going?"

Mako turned around, scooping Yuma up in one arm. "That building." She pointed with her gun, picking out an apartment building only two blocks away. "We'll see if there's any shelter there. It's in the same direction, so we'll see Hitomi and Komaki when they get out of the hospital."

Erika nodded. "Alright. I'll carry Mrs. Shizuki." She hoisted the woman over her shoulder. "Let's go."

The five of them ran, two carrying someone over their shoulders, as fast as they could go. Koito quickly overtook the rest, leading the group. After only half a block, Oriko and Saotome were falling behind. They weren't even in sight by the time Mako and Erika made it to the apartment building. Koito was dispatching the last of a small group of undead that had been loitering about in front of the building. Quickly switching out of her Magical Girl outfit and back into some pink pajamas, she rushed to the glass door and knocked on it. Mako made her way over as well, just as a slightly portly older man reached the door. He saw the gun in her hand and nearly choked, turned and bolting away as fast as he could go. Mako groaned and watched helplessly as he rushed around behind his the front desk and pressed some button underneath it.

What sounded like an alarm went up through the entire building.

* * *

Sayaka jumped when the alarm went off. "What the fu-"

Nakazawa interrupted her. "No swearing allowed in the Nakazawa home."

Mami ran over to them, peering into the apartment to see the boy. "Who's he?"

Sayaka shrugged. "A classmate. The teacher's boyfriend."

The boy pointed accusingly at her. "That is a vicious rumor and a total lie! I don't know why she has it out for me!"

Sayaka smirked. "Probably cause I told her you liked her."

"Why would you do that?!"

Mami looked around the rest of the apartment. "Where are your parents?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Uh... hmm... my mom is somewhere in town, probably drunk out of her brain. My dad is... around twenty miles south of here and six feet under the ground. Now, my stepdad, he's in India right now."

The two girls took a moment to process the information. Sayaka shook her head and grabbed his shirt. "Let's go down to the lobby and find out why that alarm went off." The three of them together ran, or rather two ran and the third was dragged, down the hall, down the stairs, and out into the lobby of the apartment building.

Mami looked over at the front desk, noting that the man she had seen behind it was now gone. "Did they make it in?"

Sayaka pointed at the front door. "Look, there's people out there! They're armed!"

Mami went over to the desk. "The doors must be locked. Where are the keys?"

Nakazawa, not entirely sure what was going on, ducked behind the desk. He called out from his hiding place. "The guard has them. He's hiding under here with me."

Sayaka ran to the door. "Toss me the keys! We need to let these people in before they break the door!"

"_We're not gonna break the damn door! We're not stupid!_"

Sayaka looked up at the woman at the door. She was holding a sub-machine gun in one hand and a little girl in the other. She turned back to Mami. "Hurry up and toss me the keys!"

Mami leaned over the counter, looking at the frightened guard. "Please give me the keys. It's too dangerous to leave those people out there. They will die if we don't let them in."

He nodded, taking the keys off his belt and handing them over. She immediately threw them across the lobby to Sayaka, who caught them and turned to the door. "Wha- Where the hell is the lock?" She looked down and spotted it at the very bottom of the door. "Why is it down there?"

On the other side of the glass door, Shizuki woke up staring at the ground. She still didn't know what had hit her, but she knew she was mad. Without a second thought, she grabbed her weapon and pointed at whoever was holding her. The first three shots ripped through Erika, causing her to drop her load and stumble forward and fall flat on her face. She spotted Mako and raised her gun.

Sayaka opened the door and froze, seeing the gun pointed right her way. Mako, having heard the gunshots, turned to aim her own gun back at Shizuki.

One shot was fired, and only one. It flew over Sayaka's shoulder and right past Mako. It struck Shizuki's gun head on, slicing the weapon apart like it was nothing and continuing on to hit her shoulder, spattering blood and severing the arm.

Sayaka snapped her head around to see Mami standing behind her, looking down the barrel of her own rifle. The blonde Magical Girl let out a long breath. "E-everyone... get inside."

Mako put Yuma down and pushed her through the door before walking over to Shizuki. She reached down and picked up the remains of the shattered gun, taking the partially expended clip. Then she grabbed the two spare clips directly off of Shizuki's belt. She stepped back and returned to help Koito drag Erika through the door.

Not far away, Oriko and Miss Saotome sat in a tree, hoping against hope that none of the undead would find them.


	27. Escape

"Alright, this is it. You ready?"

Hitomi nodded, glancing down the hall both directions. Ahead of them was an open door and the sounds of around thirty undead clamoring to get through to the balcony. It would be near impossible to get through them all. Komaki pointed to the room one over, closer to them. Hitomi nodded, understanding her idea. At the very least, they could get out to the neighboring balcony and start to communicate with whoever was still alive out there. They moved out of their cover, quietly making their way down the hall to the nearer of the two rooms. Inside, they found three more zombies and another two out on the balcony.

Hitomi grumbled. "Guess they had the same idea." She raised her rifle. "Close the door!"

As soon as Komaki had the door shut, Hitomi opened fire. The first three were easy enough, dying before they were able to make out where exactly the noise was coming from. The two outside shuffled in through the door with their arms up, hands reaching for the two girls. Hitomi couldn't get a good shot. She ducked away just as they were about to grab for her. Komaki kicked one of them away, landing it on its back. Hitomi turned and shot it in the head when it rolled over to push itself back up.

The last one grabbed Komaki's hair as she was retreating and pulled her back. She fell to the floor and the undead went to follow her. Hitomi shot it through the top of its head as it leaned down. She pulled Komaki out from under her attacker and helped her up. After checking themselves over for injuries and determining they were both in the clear, they stepped out onto the balcony.

Across the gap between balconies, Kyosuke spotted Hitomi. He pointed over the nurse's shoulder. "Miss Ota, Mister Itagawa. Look!"

The nurse looked over to the other balcony and spotted the two girls. "Who are they?" She called over to them, waving. "Hey! Are you kids okay?"

Hitomi held up her weapon, showing it off. "Just fine. We came to rescue you."

Homura looked up from where she was huddled with the younger girl. "Rescue?"

Itagawa looked over at the girls on the other balcony. "I don't mean to be a pessimist, but how exactly do you plan to rescue us from over there?"

Komaki transformed, her Magical Girl outfit appearing in a flash of light. "The plan is jumping you all down to the ground so we can get out of here."

Ota looked over the others she was with. The idea of being rescued had snapped them all out of their panicked states, but a few problems still remained. "Okay, but we have two girls and a boy that need help walking."

Homura stood up. She was a little shaky, but she looked confident. "I can take care of myself."

Picking up the other, younger girl, Itagawa handed her to Ota. "You carry her, then. I'll take care of him."

Ota cradled the girl. "What's your name, dear?"

"Nagisa."

"Okay, Nagisa. We're going to get out of here soon. Just hold on to me."

Komaki leaped across the gap, landing on the railing and hopping down. "I should get one of the men down first. You, come on." Grabbing the youngest of the men, she immediately jumped off the balcony and plummeted to the lot below. She let him down and made her way back up, first jumping to the top of a parked truck that was beside the hospital, then to the top of a lamp post, and then back to the balcony.

Hitomi watched, entirely nonplussed. "Why didn't you do that the first time?"

"And jump into a crowd of people I don't know if they're dead or alive? I'm not stupid." She turned back to the rest. "Who's next? How about you?" She pointed to Kyosuke. "Need someone to carry you, that's okay. I'll set you down and be down with someone else right away. But we do need to hurry. We don't want you sitting down there waiting when a swarm shows up."

Hitomi watched as Komaki moved back and forth. After Kyosuke, she helped down the man who'd volunteered to carry Kyosuke. Then was the nurse, and then Nagisa, who she passed off to the nurse right away. She then helped the dark-haired girl and one of the women, who looked like a foreigner. On the last trip up, Hitomi heard a sound like wood suddenly splintering and glass shattering. The door on the other balcony looked still intact, so that only left...

She turned and peered back into the room she had come through. Something large and pink, and very inhuman, growled at her from the darkness. Hitomi closed the door to the balcony, though she doubted it would stop a monster, and climbed up onto the railing. She called over to Komaki just as the Magical Girl landed on the other balcony.

"They broke through the door! Hurry up and get me out of here!"

"Gimme a second, I got one more!" Komaki grabbed the last woman and jumped down, even cracking the concrete with her landing, dropped the woman and shot back into the air. In a single bound, she managed the grab the bottom of the balcony and climb the rest of the way. She crossed her arms triumphantly. "Here I am, to rescue you."

The grotesque pink monster broke through the glass door and turned towards the two girls, snarling and growling.

Hitomi wrapped her arm around Komaki. "Time to go."


End file.
